


A Lot of What It Takes To Get By

by esmerelda_t



Series: A Lot of What it Takes To Get By [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-01 13:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18801043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esmerelda_t/pseuds/esmerelda_t
Summary: Luke Cage and Danny Rand reappeared in Central Park at 13.37 that afternoon, having disappeared, and subsequently been declared dead, over ten years previously.Matt and Jessica deal with the consequenes of not only surviving but thriving.





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> This was started pre the airing of The Defenders and therefore is not canon compliant with anything after that point on either the TV or movie side of the MCU.

Jessica meets her daughter’s stink eye with an even more impressive glare until Danielle huffs “ _fine”_ and goes to put the shirt that there’s no way in hell Jessica is buying for her back on the rack. She turns to see Trish giving her an ‘Ah I see what you mean now’ look at the exchange and Jessica rolls her eyes, voice low to make sure Dani doesn’t hear, “I don’t think I can deal with a teenager, she’s going to have to come and live with you on her thirteenth birthday, send her back to me after grad school.” Trish hadn’t believed Jessica’s complaints that _everything_ Dani had shown her mother online in terms of new clothes she needed was inappropriate for her age. Trish had thought Jessica was just complaining because Dani’s fashion sense extended beyond jeans and a t-shirt. Trish replies dryly, “If that’s your way of asking me to pay for her college education the answer’s no, you’re just going to need to catch a better class of cheating spouse and up your fee.”

Before Jessica can reply Danielle has returned, still in a sulk and muttering, “Dad would have let me buy it.” Jessica snorts, “Only because he couldn’t see it, once someone had described it to him he’d set it on fire and you’d be lucky not to be in convent school by next weekend.” Danielle huffs at that but she doesn’t argue the point. The shopping is pretty much a bust by now, they’ve spent more time bickering than they have actually buying anything and Jessica doesn’t think she has the will to continue, she extends an olive branch, “Will we go find your dad and brother and go eat?” Danielle nods but falls into step with Trish instead of her, Jessica doesn’t take it personally but she’s grateful Trish is there to keep up a casual stream of chat to stop Danielle’s resentment that her mother won’t let her dress like a stripper from festering. When they reach the children’s shoe department she asks, “Hi, I’m looking for my husband and son? Dour blind guy with a smaller, cheerful version of himself?” The sales assistant blinks at her and gestures, “Uh, over there?”  They reach the end of the shoe racks where both Matt and Christopher are sitting, another sales assistant is handing over a bag which must contain the shoes Christopher was wearing when he left the house because he’s currently wearing lime green new sneakers and flexing his feet happily as he shouts, “Look at my new sneakers, Mommy! Aren’t they great!” Jessica sighs as she looks at the radioactive vomit colour that Matt is oblivious to, “Next time, Murdock we trade and you shop with your daughter.”

~

Trish has evening plans so hugs the kids outside Macy’s and hails a cab. There’s a pizzeria nearby that is traditionally used for post Macy’s trips and they head there. Danielle is mollified slightly by the fact she’s allowed to walk in front with Christopher on the agreement she doesn’t go too far ahead and she keeps a firm grip of her brother’s hand, who’s been known to steer off course to follow a dog going in the opposite direction. Matt asks once the kids are a little ahead, “Did you get her school shirts? Neither of you are carrying anything.” His hand is on Jessica’s elbow so he’d easily feel her shake her head from the vibrations, “Everything I wanted to get she thought was babyish, everything she wanted to get looked like it was Jodie Foster’s left over wardrobe from _Taxi Driver_. It got a little bit tense.”

Matt is frowning, “She’s only ten, are we not a few years off these battles?” Jessica replies with a resigned sigh, “Clearly not. “ Ahead she can see the kids thanks to the flashes of Christopher’s sneakers, “You do know the shoes you bought him are the colour of alien snot?” Matt grins, “Yeah? He picked them out, I’d have loved sneakers the colour of alien snot when I was five.”

Jessica sighs, glad she doesn’t care about colour coordinating shoes with outfits, “Well I won’t lose him in the dark anytime soon when he’s wearing them, I can guarantee that.”

~

Jessica is busy mopping gelato off Christopher’s face when her phone rings the first time, a glance down to where it’s sitting on the table tells her it’s just Trish. Across the table Dani is meticulously guiding Matt’s hand on the colouring pages she and Christopher had been given when they all sat down. She’d huffed she wasn’t a baby but Matt had asked her to help him colour in.  She’s laughing as she says, “No you need to stay in the lines, Dad!” Matt’s hand stills suddenly and he tilts his head in a way Jessica has learned means trouble. Danielle is old enough now to know it too, “Dad?” She glances over at Jessica before trying again, “Dad, is everything okay?” Christopher’s eyes widen and he turns his head too, obviously hearing the same thing, he says excitedly, “Oh! Oh They’re back! It’s on the news, everyone is talking about it! Can we look on your phone, Mommy?” Jessica’s phone rings again, it’s Malcolm this time, she continues to ignore it, looks across the table at Matt who looks _stricken_ and Jessica can feel panic begin to coil in her at _they’re back_. Christopher didn’t seem scared but he was five, what the hell did he know, there’s a lot that could be back that means very bad news. They need to get out, get the kids somewhere safe. Christopher squeals when Jessica stands, hauling him with her and onto her hip, she can easily carry both the kids. Matt finally speaks, “Jess, it’s okay…it’s…it’s not bad, it’s Luke and Danny, they’re back.”

Jessica collapses back down onto her seat, her knees having buckled.

~

It’s all over the news, which they turn on once they’re home. Christopher is sitting cross legged in front of the TV, usually she’d yell at him not to sit so close unless he wanted to be as blind as his father. Danielle is sitting on the sofa with her, curled into Jessica’s side, confusion meaning her annoyance from earlier is long gone. She’s playing with her pendant, a gift from Matt on the day the adoption papers came through, as she watches the screen.

Luke Cage and Danny Rand reappeared in Central Park at 13.37 that afternoon, having disappeared, and subsequently been declared dead, over ten years previously.

Danielle was an infant when Jessica and Matt got together and she doesn’t remember a time when Matt didn’t live with them.  Matt officially adopted her when she was six, it had been in the works since before Christopher was born but Danielle knew of course that Matt wasn’t her biological father.  She was well aware that her biological father was Luke Cage and he had died before she was born. That he’d died a hero and alongside Danny Rand had saved New York.

Jessica hadn’t even been sure at the time she was pregnant. She didn’t even know what she and Luke were since he’d split up with Claire. Jessica suspected she was a bad habit Luke picked back up. She’d been too afraid to take the test. They’d confirmed it at the hospital afterwards and that’s when she’d finally cried, sobbed really, into Trish’s neck because Luke was _gone_  and she’d not even had the guts to tell him he was going to be a father. Maybe if she had he’d have hesitated. Of course if Luke had hesitated New York may have been destroyed. She doesn’t even really remember the event, just a light and the sound of her own voice screaming as Stark, in the suit, held her back. The next thing she remembers is picking herself off the ground to shout at the Avengers who were gathered round an unconscious Matt by that point _don’t you fucking touch him_ and _where the fuck were you assholes ten minutes ago when we needed you._ If she’d known that Parker was something like eleven at the time she may have held back on the language.

Christopher bounces up and over to them on the sofa, “Will Dani’s daddy come and see her?” Jessica feels Dani tense beside her, “Dad doesn’t _see_ anything.” Christopher doesn’t take the hint, “Your _real_ daddy, silly, you’re so lucky, Dani, Luke Cage is _so_ cool, I’d love it if he was my daddy.”

Matt would have heard that anywhere in the house but of course he’s standing in the doorway during this exchange and Jessica has seen him look better seconds before she’s popped his shoulder back into its socket. Christopher just beams at all of them and goes back to watching TV. Dani jumps up, mumbles, “I’m going to my room.” Jessica wonders if she should stop her especially as there’s a catch in Dani’s voice which means Jessica is pretty sure she’s about to start crying, she stands and turns to follow but Matt shakes his head at her and Jessica sighs and follows him out to the kitchen instead. Matt is faced away from her so Jessica says to his back, “He doesn’t mean anything by it you know, he told me last week he wished She Hulk was his mom so he could be green, kid’s committed to a colour scheme, I’ll give him that.” Matt turns and gives her a grim smile, “I know.” He picks up his phone which had been lying on the countertop, having left them all in the living room earlier to see if he could get any more information. “I called Karen and Peter, the Press aren’t holding anything back, they don’t know anymore than they’ve already put out there. Peter was a bit more useful, he says they’re at Avengers Towers being debriefed and checked out for, I don’t know, interdimensional parasites. He’s not there but he offered to call Stark directly if we want him to.”

Jessica answers with an assertive no, Parker’s a good kid, but she doesn’t like owing favours unless she absolutely needs to, even to good guys. She asks, “Is she crying?” Matt purses his lips, “Yes, give her a couple of minutes though, Christopher hasn’t noticed.” Jessica sighs, “Yet, urgh, super kids with their super hearing.” Matt smiles and it’s genuine this time, “They get the super strength from you though.”

Jessica lets Danielle cry against her without trying to coax her into talking as in truth Jessica can’t sort through her own feelings right now, why she’s so upset at what should be happy news. Once Dani is only sniffling quietly into her shoulder while Jessica strokes her hair Jessica asks, “You want to come downstairs and watch a movie? You can pick.” Danielle shakes her head, “Can I just go to bed? I’m really tired.” Jessica kisses her forehead, “Of course, Sweetie.” Danielle changes into her pyjamas and lets Jessica brush out her hair and wash her face without complaint. Jessica can hear Christopher chattering away happily to Matt in his room, having been brought up earlier. Danielle quietly asks, “Can Dad read to me? We’re reading his braille set of _Harry Potter._ ” Jessica smiles, “Of course, Honey, wait a couple of minutes.” When she goes into Christopher’s room Christopher is quieter and under his duvet. Matt kisses Christopher’s forehead as Jessica says, “Can you…” Matt is already standing, he doesn’t listen in to every conversation in the house under normal circumstances but she guesses tonight isn’t normal, “I’ll sit with Dani until she falls asleep.” Christopher holds out his arms to her as Matt departs and Jessica goes over to the bed, gathers him up to hug him to her, Christopher yawns and mumbles, “I’m sorry, Mommy, I think I made Daddy and Dani sad.” Jessica closes her eyes and holds him tighter.

~

She’s opened a bottle of red and is on the second, large, glass when Matt comes down, she’s left a glass out for him on the coffee table and as he fills it she asks, “She okay?” Matt takes a gulp rather than a sip, “I think so…she’s asleep anyway.” Jessica takes the bottle from him to refill and asks, “You want to take this upstairs to finish?” There is no delicate way to say she really wants him to fuck her, she needs the stress release and she needs to feel close to him. Matt stands and holds out his hand for hers, “Yeah, let’s go to bed.” Afterwards they’re lying together on their side and Matt is idly stroking her lower abdomen, a sudden, enthusiastic, thought occurs to her and she shifts so she can face him, “I could have my IUD removed, we could start trying for another baby, what do you think?”

Matt’s fingers falter slightly and he frowns, “Do you want to have another baby?” Jessica trails her own fingers up his bicep, “Didn’t you enjoy yourself when we were trying for Christopher? Remember that week I came in every lunchtime and you fucked me over your desk?” Matt makes a noise which is less remembering sexy fun times than Jessica would like. Jessica shifts some more so she can run her fingers down his chest and to his still ridiculously impressive abs, leans forward to kiss his jaw, “We could practice some more now if you like.” She’s surprised when Matt catches her hand as it makes its way lower, “Jess…do you really want to have another baby or is this just…”

She huffs, pulls her hand away and sits up, “Just _what_?” He looks in her general direction, “Don’t you want to talk about Luke? About him being back?”

“No.” Jessica lies back down on her side, facing away from Matt. He sighs, “Okay.” She can hear he’s turning to face away from her.

~

Alias Investigations never moved offices, they were just spruced up a little. She’s not lived there for years. She moved in with Trish before Dani was born and stayed there until she and Dani moved in with Matt when Dani was around twenty months. The living space was handy with the kids though, like today when Christopher’s kindergarten is closed.  He’s playing in what was her bedroom where there’s still a bed for the kids to nap on if she needs to take them in to the office with her. There’s nothing too exciting she can do with Christopher in tow so she’s just doing paperwork when the chime of the door opening makes her glance up. Her throat constricts and her mouth falls open a little.

In the doorway Luke quietly says, “Hey, Jess.” Jessica can’t breathe, she thinks she’s going to pass out, then suddenly she’s tethered to the ground by the familiar, bright, voice coming from the bedroom doorway, “Hi! You’re Luke Cage!”

Jessica glances at Luke who looks startled for a moment before smiling, and something kicks at Jessica’s gut when she sees it, he looks down, “You must be Christopher, I’ve heard a lot about you.” Luke bends down and holds out his hand, which a delighted Christopher shakes enthusiastically. Luke stands up and clears his throat, turns to Jess, “Sorry, with you being at work I thought…” He didn’t expect her to be there with one of her kids, Jessica stands, “His kindergarten is closed today, Dani is at school.” Luke pauses, “I came to see if you were free for lunch? We have a lot to catch up on.” He glances down at Christopher to include him, “Can I take you both to lunch?”

If Jessica was on her own she’d say no, actually she suspects if she was on her own she’d be throwing furniture by now but Christopher bounces at the prospect, “Can we, Mommy?” Jessica tries to smile a she nods her acquiescence.

~

After lunch they sit in the park and she shouts at Christopher not to go far as he runs for the play equipment, she’s watching him climb up a slide ladder when Luke quietly says, “He seems like a great kid…gregarious.” Jessica grins at that, “Yeah, we really don’t know where he gets it from, although Matt’s a massive dork at times, I sometimes wonder if before poverty, abandonment and ninja assholes got to him he’d have been more like Christopher is.”

Luke gives her a quizzical look, ”You don’t think any of it is from you?” Jessica laughs, “God no.” Christopher has climbed up the ladder again and waves from the top, Jessica waves back, she pulls her phone out of her bag, “I’m guessing this is what you’re really here for.” She pulls up a recent photo of Danielle and hands her phone over. Luke takes it and gazes at the photo, “She’s beautiful.”

Jessica nods, “She is, she’s a great kid too, although she’s going through a pushing at the boundaries phase at the moment.” Luke doesn’t lift his eyes from the screen, “And…she gets on with Murdock?”

Jessica doesn’t hesitate, “Yes. She does….Matt’s the only father she’s ever known, Luke. In her eyes he _is_ her dad and Matt adores her, always has.”

Luke’s next question takes her by surprise, he looks up at her asks, “Is she happy? Are you?”

Jessica meets his gaze, “Yes. I never really saw myself as a wife and mom, but I like it, I love it.”

Luke’s brow creases, Jessica thinks he’s amused, “What, are you like, a lawyer wife? Do you go to dinner with the partners?” Jessica shakes her head, “Not unless you count dinner down the block with Foggy. I still do my PI work, sometimes do work for Nelson & Murdock, told Hogarth to go fuck herself years ago though. I pay my lawyer in sexual favours now which is an improvement on tiny chips of my soul every time I had to do a favour for her.”

Luke grimaces, “She’s not mellowed any, she’s been to see Danny.” He looks back down at the photo, “Oh, did you…” Jessica makes a face in return, “Name her after Danny…yeah. In my defence they gave me the good stuff during labour, I thought it was what you’d have wanted.”

Luke smiles and again Jessica’s gut does that thing, “That’s, yeah…that’s really sweet. Thank you.”

Jessica shrugs, “You’re welcome I guess.” Luke clears his throat, “So when did you and Murdock get together?” Jessica frowns at him, “You know I’m pretty sure you used to call him Matt. What is this, territorial bullshit?” Luke at least has the grace to look sheepish, “Sorry. Matt. I had to give Misty 20 bucks, she won the betting pool, I lost when you guys didn’t get together that time he turned out not to have been crushed to death under Midland Circle.”

Jessica rolls her eyes, she’d spent years insisting she and Matt were just friends, it had actually been pretty galling when she eventually figured out she did actually _like_ him. “At some point hanging out became dating and it was fairly casual at first but you know, we liked each other, we could be honest with each other and then it wasn’t casual, it was serious. He was really good with Dani when she was a baby too, scary good. Would have her in his arms even before she got the chance to start whimpering she wanted to be picked up. Dani and I moved in with him and a couple of years down the line we decided to get married and have another baby.” She makes a ‘voila’ gesture at Christopher, who’s moved to entertain himself on the monkey bars.

Luke takes a moment to let it all sink in before quietly asking, “Misty said Matt adopted Danielle, is that true?” Jessica sighs, “Luke, we thought you were dead. We wanted to be sure if anything ever happened to me then Matt would automatically have parental rights. No one wanted to end up in the Lifetime movie where the courts won’t let the blind guy keep his dead girlfriend’s kid. Trish’s mom? Who is legally my mom? She’s a piece of work. Trying to get custody of Danielle if something happened to me is absolutely the kind of thing she’d do. Just to fuck with Trish.”

Luke sighs, “Sorry…I’m glad. That she had that safety net.  Does she know about me?”

Jessica nods, “Yeah of course. Beyond the obvious that both Matt and I are white and at some point she’d have noticed that I would have told her about you anyway, she deserves to know who she is. She’s very proud to be your daughter but…it’s all very abstract to her. She’s…this has been a shock, Luke, for all of us. It’s going to take her some time to get used to the idea of a living bio dad instead of a dead one.”

Luke mutters, “Yeah, it’s been a shock to me too.” He goes back to looking at the photo on Jessica’s phone.

~

It’s Tuesday and Dani goes straight to Nelson and Murdock after school on a Tuesday and Friday until Jessica picks her up or Matt finishes up for the day, whichever comes first depending on which one of them is eyeball deep in a case. Jessica wonders how to politely ditch Luke but he excuses himself, bending down once more to shake Christopher’s hand and giving her a quick hug. She says as they part, “We’ll set up something soon, for you to meet Dani.” Luke nods smiling, “I’d love that.”

She says hi to Brian, who’s ran the office for Nelson and Murdock since he’d decked a guy at Josie’s who was getting way too hands on with one of the waitresses and Matt had taken an instant shine to him, as they arrive. She’s trailing after Christopher who bounces from Brian to hurtle towards Matt’s office. Christopher is already on Matt’s knee when Jessica crosses the threshold saying, “Guess who took us to lunch today, Daddy!”

All Jessica can do is glance at Dani who is sitting at the edge of Matt’s desk doing her homework. She was going to broach the subject carefully at home, maybe ply Dani with dessert and Matt with wine at dinner. Of course there was no way Christopher wasn’t going to mention it, he’d have to have met a unicorn on the way from the park to be suitably distracted. Matt smiles and asks, “Who?” Dani is disinterested, knowing that Christopher’s idea of an exciting lunch companion could range from Captain America to the mailman, Jessica braces herself while Christopher exclaims, “Luke Cage! He came to see Mommy at work and he was so _nice_ , Daddy. We had noodles and then we went to the park and he pushed me on the swings and then we…” Danielle’s pencil breaks on the paper.

~

Matt is standing at the kitchen sink drinking water, workout clothes damp with sweat. He hadn’t come home for dinner, she’d received a brisk text saying he was working late and going to the gym. Danielle had picked at her food and gone to her room at the earliest opportunity.  Jessica has to talk to the back of Matt’s head, “What did you want me to do, Matt. Tell him to fuck off out of my office?”

Matt’s voice is low, it’s his Daredevil voice which immediately pisses Jessica off, “I didn’t expect you to let him take my son to the park.”

Matt’s sensitive about parks. While he is perfectly capable of catching balls and pushing swings it’s the sort of thing that attracts attention so he can’t do. Jessica still can’t quite believe she’s hearing this, “Given _his_ daughter calls _you_ Dad you might not want to play that card. I’m not about to be caught in the middle with _either_ of my children while the two of you have a pissing contest over us.”

Matt puts the glass on the counter but doesn’t turn around, “I know you don’t love me the way you love him but...”

Jessica doesn’t let him finish, “What the _fuck_? You _asshole_ why would you even say that? Do I pull this bullshit whenever Elektra is in town? Do I piss and moan every time you see Karen? Christ I’ve got a lot more grounds to be throwing accusations around, you’ve fucked about 65% of the women I know.”

Matt does turn at that and it’s a low blow because his eyes are doing the wide, confused, baby deer thing that basically everyone he’s ever met with the possible exception of Wilson Fisk is a sucker for, “I didn’t mean…I mean, I understand, I know I’m not…I’m not who you would have chosen in other circumstances.”

Jessica stares at him for a moment and she’s pretty sure he’s actually being sincere, which is _worse_. She steps forward and when she goes to put her arms around his neck he doesn’t shrug her off, slips his own arms round her waist and leans into her, Jessica rests her forehead against his and says, “You’re such an idiot. I’m not going to run off with Luke. You’re not going to lose me, and you’re not going to lose the kids either.” Matt mumbles, “You and Dani were the best thing that ever happened to me, Christopher too, I never thought I’d have a family of my own.” She slides her hand under his t-shirt and angles her head so she can nudge his nose with hers. His hand slides to her hip and she brushes her lips against his as his hand curls around to the small of her back, backs her up until she hits the kitchen table. Jessica slides herself onto it and pulls at him again but she notices the face he’s making, “What?”

Matt is continuing to grimace, “Here? The kids eat on this table.” Jessica rolls her eyes, “I’ll help you scrub it down afterwards.” She pushes his sweats down past his hips and moves to unbuckle the belt on her jeans. Matt blinks, “Oh. Okay.”

~

The kids are in bed and they’re trying to have an adult conversation about everything. Matt’s fidgeting with the sleeve on his hoodie when he asks, “If he’d come back sooner, a year later instead of ten years…would you have tried to make it work with him?”

Jessica tries not to take it as an accusation, “You just assume he would have wanted to try and make it work with _me_.” A year after Luke disappeared, even two maybe three years…she was still in love with him. The feelings never really went away she just locked them up inside after a while as there was _no point_ to them.  In some ways it was almost _for the best_ that he was gone. She never seriously thought she and Luke had a long term future together, Reva would always be there. Jessica’s sure Luke would have wanted to be an active part of Dani’s life, would have pulled his weight there, but she’d always known that the idea of them living happily ever after was just a fantasy. If Luke had been around though she’d have clung to that fantasy and never really moved on.  

Matt sounds hesitant, “I…I worried he’d come back. There weren’t any bodies and there’s been so much weird shit.” Jessica interrupts to say, “You’d know all about coming back from the dead.”

Matt ignores the confrontational tone, “I _hated_ that I worried about it, that I didn’t _want_ it. Luke was my friend and I was shacked up with his girlfriend and his kid pretending they were mine. I couldn’t give the two of you up though because most of the time I was happier than I’d been since, I don’t know, maybe ever.  But then I’d think about Luke and about how I didn’t deserve any of it.”

“You’ve never said any of this before.” Jessica’s more than a little pissed off about that, she’s met accusations that Matt is pathologically incapable of honesty more than once with a gloating, ‘he’s honest with me’. Matt sighs, “What would I have said? Please promise me that if the love of your life and the father of your child turns up alive and well you won’t leave me?”

It’s a fair point, Jessica supposes, but still, “You know I could just as easily ask you what you would have done if Elektra turned up at the door and said she was giving up the assassination business and she wanted to make it work with you. Of if Karen said she’d made a mistake when she chose Frank over you.”

Matt’s head is tilted down, voice low, “They didn’t but Luke _is_ back.” Jessica sighs, “Matt, Luke has shown absolutely no interest in getting back together with me.  His sole reason for contacting me is Dani and even if he _did_ want to get back together with me, I’d say no because I love _you_.” She means it too, her feelings for Matt have never been as intense as her feelings for Luke, but they also haven’t hurt. Her feelings for Matt made her happy whereas her feelings for Luke were always mixed in with guilt over Reva. There was a tipping point, a few years after Luke disappeared, when she’d have chosen Matt over Luke. She’s just not quite sure when it was, sometime after they moved in together but before they got married. She feels sick at the thought of what would have happened if Luke had resurfaced back then. It would have wrecked her and Matt, would probably have wrecked Matt full stop. She’d had more than one shovel talk from Foggy in the early days.

Matt’s lifted his head and is as close as he ever gets to looking directly at her, “I…I’d chose you, over either of them. I’m happy when I’m with you but when I was with either of them…” She replies quietly, “I know. We need to decide though, what we’re going to do about Luke.”

Matt frowns, “What do you mean?” Jessica really wishes she had a drink, “He wants to see Dani and I…I said that was okay.”

Matt blinks, “Oh.” He shakes his head, “No you’re right, it’s _good_ he wants to be part of her life, kids deserve that, to know they’re wanted.” Jessica nods at that, thinking of Maggie and Matt’s strained relationship with her. Matt sounds uncertain, “I guess we speak to her about it then?” Jessica knows her answering “Yeah I guess” sounds just as unenthusiastic.

~

On Friday Christopher has a sleepover at his best friend Trevor’s house. Trevor’s parents are taking them up state to a farm on Saturday to see the animals and Christopher barely gives Jessica a second glance when she drops him off.  She gives Mai, Trevor’s mom, a final out, “You sure you want them bouncing off the walls all night? We can drop him first thing tomorrow.” Mai snorts, “You want to pry them apart now?” She shakes her head, “It’ll be fine, they’ll calm down in a couple of hours and I’ve got wine.” Jessica grins at her, “Good luck then.” Shouts past Mai, “Bye, Baby, see you tomorrow evening!” She gets a distracted “Bye, Mommy!” in return.

She makes her way to Nelson and Murdock afterwards where the plan is she and Matt will take Dani out to dinner to broach the subject of Luke. Dani can tell it’s an ambush and pushes her food around. Jessica finally clears her throat and says, “So you know Luke came to see me earlier this week. Do you have any questions about that?” Dani shrugs and Matt says gently, “Honey, would you like to meet him? Ask him your questions?”

Dani looks up at that, “Why? He’s just some guy who knocked up my mom and left.” Jessica frowns, “It wasn’t like that, Dani, you know that. He didn’t even know I was pregnant. You’ve never had a problem with any of this before, what’s changed?”

Dani stares at her, “We thought he was dead, but he wasn’t, he _left_ you, he left _us_. Did he even try and get back?”

Jessica glances at Matt who looks like he’s thinking of what would be the appropriate thing to say, he’s the one with fancy rhetoric based college education, he replies, “We don’t know, but maybe that’s the sort of thing you could talk to him about?”

Dani goes back to pushing her food around, “Do I have to? See him?”

Matt shrugs in her direction and Jessica sighs, “No, Sweetheart, not if you don’t want to, but I know he’d really love to meet you when you’re ready to meet him.”

Matt says, quietly, “You don’t have to worry that this changes anything between you and me, you’re my daughter. Nothing changes that. I’m not going to be angry or upset if you see Luke, you know that right?”

Dani shrugs, picks up her fork and puts food in her mouth so she doesn’t have to speak.

~

Luke’s smile falters when Jessica enters the diner alone. Jessica gives him an apologetic shrug, “Dani…I think she just needs more time to adjust to the idea.” She gestures to her bag containing her Starkpad, “I know it’s not the same but I’ve pretty much got every photo I have of her on here, I thought we could look through them?” Luke nods at that and moves to sit back down while Jessica gets her tablet out. She sits, opens the photo app and hands it over. Orders coffee and a sandwich while Luke starts going through the photos, “Wow, she looks really big, I mean for a new born.” Jessica groans, “Ugh, yeah, you don’t have to tell me. To this day I can’t watch _Alien,_ pretty much feel like I lived it.” Luke make an amused huff and pauses, holds the tablet up, “Oh is this…was she a flower girl at your wedding?” The photo is of Dani in the embroidered ivory dress she wore to the wedding, she’s standing on the steps at Clinton Church looking like butter wouldn’t melt, “Yeah, she got ice cream all over that dress later on. The dry cleaner looked like he might cry.” Luke hesitates and asks, “Do you have other photos of the wedding?” Jessica pauses in surprise, she’d spent the previous evening pulling photos solely of Dani into its own folder. She takes her tablet back and opens another folder, pulls up the photo they have on one of their bedside tables of the three of them together outside the church. Luke smiles, “Big Catholic wedding huh?” Jessica makes a face, “Yeah…well Catholic anyway, there were only about a dozen guests.” Luke asks, “He got you to convert?” Jessica shakes her head, “Oh no, didn’t have to, had to go to a couple of catechism classes but that was it. It was important to Matt to be married in the Church and I don’t really care one way or the other. He takes the kids to Church at Christmas and Easter and I let him get them both christened when Christopher was born but they can decide for themselves if they want to go through the whole shebang when they’re older.” She pulls up another photo, of Dani in her christening dress, teal this time, gripping Christopher tightly, it’s the photo on their other bedside cabinet. Luke smiles, “She looks like a very proud big sister.” Jessica nods again, “Oh yeah, it was cute when she wasn’t telling us we weren’t supporting his head right and to let her hold him. Prising a baby from a super strong five year old is no easy task.” Luke’s expression is quizzical, “Super strong? Is she…”

Jessica finishes the sentence, “Bullet proof? No, her skin isn’t unbreakable and I’ve had to mop up the split knees to prove it. She is more durable than your average kid though. I’m not sure how much of it is your genes and how much of it is mine. Christopher is strong too but not as strong as Dani, he has heightened senses, although not as heightened as Matt’s, we don’t know if they’ll get stronger as he gets older.  We’re really dreading what we’re sure is going to be a train wreck through puberty with both of them.” Luke laughs quietly at that and continues to flick through the photos.

~

She’s sitting at the kitchen table reviewing some notes with Malcolm and can hear the kids in the next room. There’s a shrill, “Shut up!” from Dani and Jessica is about to shout through to her not to speak to her brother like that but then there’s a crash and a howl and Jessica jumps up with a muttered “For fuck’s sake!” Malcolm follows her out and they find Dani standing over Christopher with clenched fists and Christopher looking up at her with eyes over spilling and an utterly betrayed expression. Dani is shaking as she turns, “He wouldn’t shut up about Luke Cage. He just kept going on and on!” With that Danielle pushes past them and runs up the stairs.

Jessica leaves Christopher, sobbing, with Malcolm. She doesn’t think he’s physically hurt, at least not much. The tears are a combination of shock and generally hurt feelings that someone would _push him_.

Danielle keeps facing towards the wall as she lies on her bed and the silent treatment is loud and clear when Jessica enters the room. She ignores it and sits down on the bed, says, “You know you can’t shove your brother like that, he’s smaller than you and not as strong and you could hurt him, you wouldn’t shove any other little kid would you?”

Danielle’s shoulders tense, “He’s stronger than other little kids, I wouldn’t shove a normal kid.”

Jessica sighs, “He’s not as strong as _you_ though and you could still have easily hurt him badly, what if he’d hit his head? It’s not just that anyway, you’re his big sister, you need to take care of him.” Jessica worries sometimes; about Christopher: that his good nature is just crying out to be taken advantage of.

Danielle’s shoulders deflate somewhat and she asks quietly, “Is Dad going to be mad? That I pushed Christopher?”

Jessica begins to answer, “Well he’s not going to happy…oh.” She’s just joined the dots of what Dani means, “Honey, he’s going to be mad you pushed someone smaller and more vulnerable than you. He’d be mad at Christopher if he did something to hurt you. He loves you both the same, just like I do. You know that.”

Danielle’s voice is muffled as she’s buried her face into her pillow, “Tina says he loves Christopher more than me because Christopher is his _real_ son and that you love Christopher more than me because he’s Dad’s baby.” Jessica is not sure which of the girls in Dani’s class is Tina but Jessica is going to find out and Tina is going to be fucking sorry, as will her parents be for raising such a malicious little shit. Jessica puts her hands on Dani’s shoulders and turns her around, “Danielle, none of that is true. We love you, you’re _our_ baby. Do you think Auntie Trish and I love each other less because we’re not biological sisters? We’re still _real_ sisters. Outside of this house there’s no one in the world your Dad loves more than your Uncle Foggy, it doesn’t matter to them either that they aren’t biologically related.  Your Dad loves you, you’re just as much his real daughter as Christopher is his real son.”

Dani sniffs, “Why do you want me to go and live with Luke then? If you don’t want to offload me.”

Jessica shakes her head, “Firstly no  one is talking about you living with him but Dani…Luke is a good man, I think if you got to know him you’d really like him. He just wants the chance to be part of your life and your Dad and I support that, you can’t have too many people who love you, Dani, who are looking out for you, we both learned that the hard way and we want better for you and your brother. If you don’t feel ready to meet him yet though that’s okay, he’ll still be there when you are ready.”

Dani sniffs again and nods, “I’ll think about it. Is it okay if I stay in my room for a bit? I’ll say sorry to Christopher later, I promise.”

Jessica sighs and stands, “Of course, Honey, come down when you’re ready.”

Malcolm heads off when Jessica goes back downstairs and she needs to work for the rest of the afternoon with Christopher in her lap, exhausted after all the drama and napping curled against her chest.  She glances down at one point and sees there’s a bruise forming on his arm, visible as he’s wearing a t-shirt. Jessica tries to keep a lid on the anger she feels at the sight, unreasonably directed at Luke. Christopher was much smaller than Dani had been when he was born and had been this tiny fragile thing Jessica was frightened of crushing. The midwife had assured her Christopher was a perfectly healthy size and all the worry had almost been worth it for the look on Matt’s face when the midwife had gestured at him and said, “And it’s not like Daddy is particularly tall is he!” He didn’t seem to nurse as well as Dani either, would take ages to latch on and they now wondered if that was something to do with the super senses distracting him. She was pretty sure the super senses were why he was such a fussy eater as an infant and she’d breastfed him for much longer than she had Dani, hadn’t stopped completely until he was around two. He still wanted to be cuddled close to her chest when he was tired or upset or sick and even now Christopher was one of the smaller kids in his class while Dani had always been the tallest in her year. She’d stopped worrying about Christopher’s physical fragility when he’d gleefully lifted Foggy’s neighbours Malamute over his head when he was 30 months. When Christopher wakes up she gets him to drowsily sit up at the kitchen table to eat a snack and calls Dani down too. She’s immensely grateful when she checks on them afterwards and they’re sitting together on a beanbag watching TV.

Matt purses his lips when Jessica tells him about it afterwards, “I’ll speak to Dani about the shove but we should speak to Christopher too. He needs to learn he can’t just keep pushing at things to try and get his own way, he shouldn’t be annoying her about Cage.”

Jessica rolls her eyes at _Cage_ but says, “She thought you’d blame her.”

Matt looks confused, “Well yeah, she can’t shove other kids, she knows that. It’s not fair it’s asked of her more than her peers  but with her strength she needs to keep control of her temper. Why would she….oh.” Matt trails off at the realisation.

Jessica sighs, “Yeah. One of the girls at school said something to her. I guess it’s brought a lot of it out in the open, parents will be talking shit about something they know nothing about, the kids then repeat it.”

Matt frowns, “But we’ve told her…I don’t think I treat them any differently, do I?” Jessica shakes her head, “No, if anything we’re nauseatingly stereotypical, Dani’s a daddy’s girl and Christopher is a mommy’s boy. You’ve never treated her as anything other than your own kid.”  Matt sighs, “That’s because she _is_ my kid. I guess we just need to give it time.”

~

Christopher is frowning, clearly upset, and Jessica has to push down the instinct to snatch him up. She loves both of her children equally but Christopher is her _tiny little_ _baby_. Matt has him on his knee and his voice is gentle but Christopher is _sensitive_ so part of Jessica is still bristling as Matt says, “Do you understand why you made your sister angry?” Christopher looks over to her and Jessica is sure her eye twitches, but Christopher replies, “Because I was talking about her real Daddy?” Jessica sighs at that, “Honey, _your_ Daddy is her real Daddy, I know it’s complicated but it’ll make more sense when you’re a little bit older. It upsets Dani when you say Daddy isn’t her real Daddy.” Christopher’s eyes widen at that, “But they’re _both_ her Daddy! Colin has _four_ sisters, and they’re all his sisters! What’s the difference?” Jessica has no answer to that but it’s Matt’s turn to sigh, “You’re right, baby, it shouldn’t be different, but it _is_.  Families are complicated sometimes. Dani is upset and confused right now and it’s our job as her family to support her. “

Christopher looks between them both, “But Luke is upset and confused too. I could tell his heart…” He’s too young to articulate the sensory input but Jessica’s stomach _drops_ as his face scrunches up, “You all smell _weird_ since Luke came back and it’s too loud and…” Christopher waves his hand in distress and Matt grabs it, shushes him, “Hey, hey, it’s okay, buddy, listen to my heart, block everything else out, it’s okay.” Christopher curls up against Matt’s chest and Matt cuddles him close to him. Jessica shifts on the sofa so she can rub his back. Christopher’s senses don’t overwhelm him often, he was born with them so it’s always been his baseline and Matt meditated with him regularly, since he was old enough to sit upright, to control them better.  He falls asleep against Matt after a while and Jessica waits while Matt carries him upstairs to lay him down on his bed. When he returns Jessica asks, “So we smell huh?” Matt shrugs, “Stress pheromones have a distinct scent, yeah. To be honest I hadn’t noticed until he said, probably because I’m giving them off too. It’s easy to forget his level of sensory input sometimes as he handles it so well.” Jessica nods, “How does he manage to remain so upbeat do you think? He must hear and smell and taste all sorts of shit every day.” Matt answers dryly, “Foggy thinks the difference between him and me is stability. You know, why wouldn’t he be happy? He has parents who love him, a big sister who most of the time adores him, aunts and uncles who indulge him and he has a signed photo of himself with Thor. He blocks out the bad shit because he has no frame of reference for it, he hears sirens and thinks ‘oh good help is on the way’. Even as a kid I heard sirens and wondered which one of the neighbours had put his wife’s face into a wall.”

Jessica nods, it makes sense, she asks, “Wait, did Foggy basically admit he thinks we’re good parents? Didn’t he say he wouldn’t let you look after a Tamagotchi never mind a kid the first time you babysat Dani? And that he had social services on speed dial for the first time I left her in a bar?” Matt smiles, “He was drunk, pretty sure he’d argue it was inadmissible.”

~

The tension in Matt’s jaw as Jessica finishes reading the letter she’d received at the office that morning doesn’t make Jessica feel better. She’d barged in ten minutes previously, luckily he wasn’t with a client. She feels sick, “This is bullshit, right? He can’t _do_ this, _why_ would he do this!” Matt shakes his head, “And it’s directly from Hogarth? Not just her office?” Jessica double checks, “Yeah, it’s from her. What the fuck, Matt? Why would Luke instruct a lawyer? He can’t possibly thing we’re deliberately trying to keep Dani from him.”  Matt grimaces, “I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking but I’m not about to be intimated by a shark like Hogarth and I’m not forcing Dani into something she isn’t ready for. They can go fuck themselves and I’ll put that on _my_ letterhead.”

~

Before they enter Hogarth’s office Foggy firmly says, “Let me do the talking, here I’m the lawyer and you’re the clients.” Matt makes a typical Matt face at that and Foggy says even more firmly, “Matt, I’m serious. You asked me to come with you for a reason.”

Matt sighs, “Fine, I’ll be quiet” Foggy turns to Jessica, “And don’t, flip her desk or anything.” Jessica mumbles, “I’m not making any promises” as they enter Hogarth’s office. Hogarth is smiling tightly and gestures for them to sit down. They decline refreshments, Hogarth nods briskly to Foggy, “Nelson. I assume you’re here in a professional capacity?” Foggy just smiles as they take their seats. Hogarth gets right to it, “You’re denying Mr Cage access to his daughter, on what grounds?”

Jessica opens her mouth but Matt squeezes her hand and she shuts it again, right, let Foggy speak. Foggy doesn’t miss a beat, “I’m sure we can all agree here that the priority is what is best for Danielle. Matt and Jessica have no objections to Luke meeting Danielle although they would stipulate that initially one of them should be present but this is solely to reassure Danielle. I’m sure you can imagine that this has been quite distressing for Dani. That is the sole reason a meeting has been postponed, Matt and Jessica believe that it’s going to take time and patience for Daniele to adjust to the situation, they have no objections to contact with Luke but only when Danielle is ready.”

Hogarth smiles at the three of them, insincerely, “”Nice speech but what I can’t help wondering is, what is Danielle being told that she’s so reluctant to meet her _real_ father? Luke Cage is a hero, what kid wouldn’t want him for a dad? See, what I think is this, that you’ve been talking shit about him to Danielle, poisoning her against him. Luke gave up _everything_ to protect this city.” Hogarth turns to Jessica and Jessica’s mouth goes dry, “To protect _you_. You know what I think? You’re keeping a good man away from his daughter because you’re shacked up with a man with a history of instability and violence.” Hogarth leans back in her chair, “I’ve been instructed to inform you that Mr Cage wants primary custody of his daughter, if you object and this goes to court we will be forced to disclose that Mr Cage does not want his daughter living in the household of an unstable, violent, vigilante. In a nutshell if you fight this we’ll out Murdock as Daredevil and when we’re done you’ll be lucky if social services let you keep your boy.” Hogarth turns and smirks at Matt, “Still, maybe he could go to St Agnes, once you and Jones are declared unfit.” 

Jessica feels nauseous and Matt is making a weird sound, like he’s struggling to breathe, she’s stunned when Foggy just snorts, “Yeah? Good luck with proving that. I look forward to the countersuit. I assume you’re retained on Rand’s dime? He can provide the multi-million dollar cheque for damages. That’ll be the only thing going to St Agnes and I’m sure the nuns and the kids will appreciate it.” Foggy stands and reaches for Matt’s elbow, urging him to his feet, “I guess we’re done here.” Jessica stands in a daze and follows them out the room.  Matt makes it about half way down on the elevator before declaring he needs to stop _now_.  Jessica waits outside a restroom with Foggy, after Matt had shrugged him off before going in. Jessica is surprised when Foggy speaks, “You know when the two of you got together  I was sure it was going to end badly, that’d he end up  hurt and alone like always and I’d need to try and stick enough of him together again so that he could function. It leading to him being disbarred and imprisoned wasn’t a big concern though, so kudos on going the extra mile.”

Jessica opens her mouth to respond, although _fuck you, Nelson_ is pretty much all that’s coming to mind when there’s a crash from the restroom. She and Foggy share a look before scrambling for the door. Once they’re in the restroom they find Matt sitting against a wall, a dent in it where he’s punched it. Foggy mutters, “Yeah, not helping the ‘not violent and unstable’ case here, pal.”  Jessica glares at Foggy and goes to kneel beside Matt who seems to be in the middle of a full blown panic attack. She rubs his leg and says, “C’mon, Honey, just breathe through it, it’s okay.”

Matt is shaking his head, chokes out, “I can’t…I can’t risk him going into the system, I _can’t_.”

Foggy kneels down on the other side and puts his hand on Matt’s shoulder, says firmly, “Matt, that’s not going to happen. _No one_ is taking either of those kids away from you and Jess. Hogarth is full of shit and I for one have no problem calling in every favour the three of us are owed if need be. I’ll get every Avenger on the stand to testify in your favour if we need to. Look I’m not going to lie to you as you know how bad it could be if they actually followed through and named you as you know who and I’m not even going to say I have been saying for years that you had way too much to lose to still be doing that shit but absolute _worst_ case scenario here? Disbarred, yeah but I don’t believe you’d even serve time, no New York jury is going to send Daredevil to Rikers. You and Jessica are good parents, those are happy, well-adjusted kids. There is no way you would lose custody and I have no fucking idea what Cage is thinking but I fully intend to sock him one once this is all over.” Foggy glances at Jessica, “Is he still really big? I’m guessing yes?” Jessica rolls her eyes and nods, “Okay I fully intend to have very strong words with him once this is all over.”

~

Two young, migratory, women have disappeared from the Kitchen in the past month and there’s mutterings of human trafficking going on again. Jessica is leaning against the bedroom door watching Matt put on the suit. She’d rather he didn’t run about as his alter ego given all that’s going on but she also knows that having Daredevil on the streets makes a difference. She says, “Be careful, Hogarth will have a field day if you’re walking around for the next week with a black eye.”

Matt snorts as he puts on the cowl, “I’ll try and block any blows to my face with my ribcage. I’m not promising I won’t act if there’s some scumbag pulling a girl off the streets but I’ll try and keep it to reconnaissance.”

Jessica goes over and helps him with his gloves, “Oh feel free to dangle a few low grade mob minions off a roof or something, it is Friday night after all, do something fun.”

Matt smirks and gives her a quick kiss before heading to the window. Jessica checks on the kids, both of them are fast asleep, and heads downstairs.

A couple of hours later Jessica glances up from her tablet as the local news comes on, “This just breaking, Daredevil has been seen fighting the newly returned Iron Fist near…” Jessica’s heart constricts in her chest. She quickly checks a few websites and they don’t make her feel better. She’s texting Malcom, who lives the closest, when his text arrives, “Seen the news, on my way to sit with the kids.” Jessica is texting ‘thanks’ when she enters Danielle’s room, who rouses this time as Jessica isn’t attempting to be quiet and yawns, “Mom? What’s going on?” Jessica sits on the bed, “I need to go out, Honey. Malcolm is on his way to sit with you. Can you get up and go in beside Christopher?” Danielle bolts up at that, “Mommy? What’s going on?”

Jessica kisses Dani on the forehead, “It’s going to be okay, but I need you to be a big girl now and look after him until Malcolm gets here.” Dani nods, eyes wide but says in a clear voice, “I will, Mom, he’s safe with me.”

Jessica smooths Dani’s hair back and smiles at her, “I know.”

~

Jessica lands on the roof and takes in the scene, Matt is on the floor and it’s obvious that Danny has used the Iron Fist on him and Jessica _sees red._ She’ll fucking rip Rand limb from limb, iron fucking fist or not. What she doesn’t expect is that Luke is also there, trying to hold Danny back without hurting him and shouting, “What the fuck is wrong with you, man! You could have killed him!”

Danny is struggling, wild, as he shouts, “We had lives, Luke! He took your life from you and you don’t even care! It should have been him! Not us! No one gave _a shit_ about him except _her._ You really believe they weren’t fucking behind your back!” Jessica is vaguely aware Luke is replying but she doesn’t hear it, she runs directly for Matt and can see the part of his face exposed by the mask is covered in blood. She’d remove the cowl but she’s afraid the police and or press helicopters might appear. She tries not to be seen in public with Daredevil full stop in case some inquisitive fuck puts two and two together and concludes correctly.   She carefully pulls  Matt’s head into her lap and removes one of his gloves, holds his hand up to her face while he chokes out, “Jess?” Jessica strokes his jaw, “Shhh, I’m here, it’s…” She’s cut off by more thuds on the roof and the distinctive roar of engines, she recognises the tinny voice of Stark in the Iron Man suit as he shouts, “Stand down, Rand! Now!” Jessica looks up to see Falcon is also now on the roof and, running forward, Spiderman. Parker drops down beside them and even without facial cues Jessica can here the wince in his voice, “He _fisted_ him?”

Matt’s head rolls and Jessica’s panic must be obvious because Parker says, “He’s just fainted, I think, he’s probably got, like 8 broken ribs. We brought a quinjet, you want me to carry him?”

Jessica shakes her head, “It’s fine.” She lifts Matt with ease and follows Parker.

~

Matt has three broken ribs and a fractured clavicle. Rand only got one hit in before Luke showed up and put himself between Rand and Matt. The Daredevil suit had taken most of the impact but wouldn’t have withstood a second hit. Avengers Tower has got some impressive shit including a prototype machine that knits bone back together. Matt refuses to be knocked out for it and lawyers at her when she tries to pull the medical proxy card to overrule him.  Jessica has to leave at one point because of the noise of the bones grinding together and the occasional whimper that escapes from Matt. Barnes is there anyway, saying with his metal hand extended, “Grip it as hard as you like, pal, you’re not gonna hurt me.”  She sits in a common room shaking until Romanoff pushes a glass of something that burns her throat into her hand. It’s a long night but by sunrise Matt is asleep and Banner is quietly assuring her that he’ll be sore and bruised for a while but otherwise fine. She sleeps for a couple of hours and then calls Trish, asks her to take the kids for the rest of the weekend.

They’re home by lunchtime and Matt’s wincing with every step and that’s with Jessica’s arm securely around him taking most of his weight.  She asks, “Do you want lunch or to sleep?”

Matt groans, “Sleep, I still feel nauseous from the pain.” Jessica helps him to the bedroom and to strip off the sweats he changed into at the tower, he declines the offer of his own fresh clothes. Jessica helps him under the duvet and says, “I’m going to grab some food, check in with Trish and then I’m crashing so don’t hog the duvet.”

In the kitchen Jessica multi-tasks, pulling out what she needs to throw together a sandwich and dialling Trish on speaker, “Hey it’s me, are they okay?” There’s the background noise of the TV at Trish’s end of the line, “Yeah, I collected them about 11am, they’re watching a movie and we’re thinking about the Bronx Zoo tomorrow. I can drop them off with you tomorrow evening if that’s okay with you and Matt?” Jessica agrees that sounds good and confirms Matt is fine but resting, she says goodbye, finishes her sandwich and goes upstairs. She has a quick shower and puts a clean t-shirt on before getting into her side of the bed with every intention of sleeping till Sunday. Matt is breathing deeply on his side of the bed, sound asleep.

When she’s jolted awake by a hammering at the door it’s dark out. At some point Matt has shifted and is now curled at her back, he lifts his head and says, “I…I think it might be Luke? Sounds like someone his size. Heartbeat is nervous, stressed.” Jessica climbs out the bed and opens a drawer to put on some sweatpants, while saying firmly, “You stay here.”

Matt is climbing out the bed, “Jess…” She cuts him off, “No, I’m serious. If it comes to a fight you’re in no fit state.” Matt’s eyes are wide, “You…if it comes to a fight, you can’t beat him, Jess.”

Jessica snorts, “I’ve held my own against him before.” She crosses the room, leans down and kisses him, breaks apart to say, “I love you.” He leans his forehead against hers, “I love you too.”

She goes downstairs and throws the front door wide but one look at Luke makes it clear he’s not there to fight, “Christ, you look worse than Matt.”

Luke hesitates, “Are the kids here? I don’t want to upset them, I can go if…”

Jessica shakes her head, “They’re both with Trish, come in.” Luke follows her into the living room.

Luke sits down and briefly puts his head in his hands before looking up, “Nelson has been to see the D.A. He wants Danny charged with attempted murder.”

Jessica glares, “So?” She’d spent at least 45 minutes on the phone with Foggy in the early hours once he’d gotten up to pee, checked his Twitter feed and freaked out. She’s actually grateful he’d just gone to the DA, ‘I’m calling Elektra and letting her sort Rand the fuck out’ had been said at one point.

Luke shakes his head, like he’s trying to clear it, “Danny’s sick, Jess. He….his mind just kind of gave out after a while in that place. He needs time and quiet and the chance to recover.”  She expects him to go on but he’s looking past her and Jessica knows without turning that Matt is there. She should probably be pissed but it would have been clear to him pretty much as soon as it was clear to her that Luke wasn’t there to fight. He crosses the room and holds his hand out, “Luke…it’s good to see you again…” Luke takes the proffered hand and then stands and hugs Matt. They’d been good friends before, so she shouldn’t be surprised really, Matt hugs him back and says quietly once they break apart, “Thank you for intervening last night.”

Luke shakes his head, “That…look I’m not here to make excuses. What Danny did was wrong and when he’s in his right mind again he’ll realise that but he’s currently _not_ in his right mind. I had no idea he’d asked Hogarth to start custody proceedings, you have to know…I want what’s best for Danielle. I would really love to be part of her life but not like this. Everything has gotten out of hand. I think we all need time to calm down.”

Matt nods and says quietly, “I’ll talk to Foggy. I’ll get him to drop it with the DA.”

Jessica glances between the two of them, “Matt…” See she sort of agrees with Foggy, that Rand should face consequences for his actions because he could have killed Matt and the thought makes Jessica feel nauseous. He’d have left her a widow with two kids who she would have had to tell their dad wasn’t ever coming home to them.

Luke’s face crumples, “You don’t know what it was like, the only thing that let me hold onto a shred of sanity was the fact I had to take care of him. Danny is _my_ Trish, _my_ Foggy. He and Colleen were going to get married, he was just a _kid_.”

Matt’s voice is quite, “He thinks it should have been me, no one would have missed me, not back then.”

Jessica feels the anger build because she’s heard _it should have been me_ before although not for years, she feels she might start screaming _I’d have fucking missed you, just like I missed you after Midland Circle_ but before she can start Matt continues, “But you know what? I won’t apologise for surviving that night. Don’t get me wrong, you guys absolutely did not deserve what happened but I didn’t deserve it either. I re-built my relationship with Foggy, I have a wife and two children I love more than I thought I was physically capable of loving anything. I’m sorry for what happened to you and Danny, I really am, and I’m going to talk to Foggy.  I want you to be part of Danielle’s life, Luke, I really do. Dani deserves that and so do you but I’m not going to feel bad that I survived, I’ve spent enough years doing that.”

Jessica goes to stand beside Matt, takes his hand, Luke exhales, “That’s…you know there’s not a word of that I can disagree with. Am I sorry for me and Danny? Yeah. Would I give anything to have been part of my daughter’s life? Absolutely but I’m glad you guys built a life together, I really am, because you both deserve to be happy. Right now all I can think about is making sure Danny is safe. Hogarth is arranging for him to go out of state and I’ll go with him. I’ve told her to drop the custody bullshit, I’d never, ever, try to take Danielle from you and I sure as hell wouldn’t be party to exposing Daredevil. Will you…tell her she can call me, anytime, or email or skype or whatever the hell people do these days. I’m there when she’s ready.”

Matt squeezes Jessica hand and she nods, “Of course.”

Once Luke leaves they order take away and eat it curled up on the sofa. They go back upstairs and Jessica strips everything off before getting back in bed. If listening to heartbeats is what Christopher uses to centre himself skin on skin is what Matt uses, although Jessica has never been convinced that’s not just a line.  He pulls her close and she throws her leg over his hip, his head is bent so that his lips are brushing against her shoulder but they’re both too exhausted for anything more. She’s drifting off to sleep when he says quietly, “You saved me, you know that right?” She yawns and shifts closer towards him, “We saved each other.”

~

Trish drops the kids off fed and sleepy from the day’s activities so all she and Matt need to do is get them ready for bed.  She can hear Matt reading from his braille Harry Potter in Dani’s room while she lies face to face with Christopher, “Did you have a nice weekend with Auntie Trish?” Christopher is fiddling with a stand of her hair, “We saw hippos at the zoo, they were really smelly but that was okay, they can’t help their smell.” She leans forward and kisses his forehead noisily and he giggles and cuddles close to her, “You’re an odd little duck but your _my_ odd little duck” She kisses the top of  his head, softly this time, “Hey you wanna go into your sister’s room and listen to the story?” If Jessica can hear mumbling from here Christopher will be hearing it in stereo surround, he nods though and lifts his arms to be picked up.  When she pushes Dani’s bedroom door open Dani is under her covers but leaning against Matt whose hand is skimming over the book. When she puts Christopher down he climbs under the duvet and curls into his sister’s other side. Jessica lies behind them and closes her eyes to listen to the story.

~

Christopher is taken a year after Luke comes back. Jessica is lying facing the wall when the bedroom door opens, she’s been expecting this for the past half hour; since the only thing stopping her ripping Karen Page’s fucking head from her shoulders was Dani suddenly between them pushing at Jessica and screaming, “Mom stop it! It’s not her fault!”

Jessica says to whoever is in the room, “I’m not apologising to her, that evil sack of shit psychopath has my son and she can’t even fucking remember handing him over.” Christopher has been missing for three days, the video had arrived that morning of a grinning Kilgrave and a bruised and clearly terrified Christopher. The cops had backed off somewhat at that point, now that it was clearly a meta case, and the Avengers had been given free reign. New York’s finest had been working on the assumption the kidnapper was someone Nelson & Murdock had pissed off or just a random kid snatch up to that point.  They now knew better.  Karen had dropped by to see Matt three days previously and had offered to take Christopher for a couple of hours. Matt had been working on a case and hadn’t thought anything of letting him go. Why should he? Karen was his friend and had been babysitting his kids for the best part of a decade.  Karen never came back with Christopher and couldn’t remember what happened no matter how much she was interrogated or Jessica screamed at her.

She turns at the unexpected voice from the doorway, “Got a call saying Christopher was missing, drove straight here to help.” Luke is standing there. Jessica sits up. “He has my baby, Luke.”

Luke nods and comes and sits on the edge of the bed, “We’ll get him back, Jess. Half the Avengers are down stairs, hell _Frank Castle_ is downstairs. They’re drinking tea Malcom made them, it’s quite the sight.”

Jessica wipes at her eyes, “Is Matt still out?” Luke nods again, “Yeah he wasn’t here when I arrived, Sam said he and Peter Parker were out seeing if they could turn up a lead on where Kilgrave is holing up?”

Jessica sniffs, “Yeah, although Parker went mainly to make sure Matt doesn’t do something stupid. Romanoff  is shaking down her contacts too. Where’s Dani?” If Jessica hadn’t been so angry and clearly frightening her daughter she’d have insisted Dani come upstairs with her, she’s not losing them both.

Luke rushes to assure her, “She’s fine, well, coping. She’s downstairs, she’s helping Foggy make sandwiches.” Jessica hesitates and asks, “Is Karen okay?” Luke sighs, “She was still crying when I arrived. Castle’s calmed her down a bit. I get this isn’t the best time to bring it up but it’s really not her fault, it could have been anyone of us Kilgrave grabbed and controlled.” Luke hesitates before continuing, “Danny and Colleen wanted to come too but I thought it was probably best if they stayed put for the moment, asked me to tell you though that anything they can do, just ask.”

Jessica definitely couldn’t have dealt with Danny right now, Matt has forgiven him, has even spoken to him on the phone a few times, but Danny and Jessica never really got along at the best of times. “Tell them, thanks, for the offer.” The door pushes open again and Dani is standing in the doorway, she frowns accusingly at the sight of both Jessica and Luke on the bed, still unshakeably loyal to Matt, “Uncle Foggy wants to know if we have any more mustard?” Jessica stands, “Yeah, at the back of the cupboard, I’ll come down.” They both follow Dani downstairs and Jessica goes into the kitchen, takes in the food Foggy has prepared, he gestures to it, “Yeah, I know but….well it’s something to do, something _I can do_.” To Jessica’s horror Foggy’s face crumples, “I just…he must be _so scared_ …”

Jessica tries to think of something reassuring to say, although she doesn’t know why, it’s her kid that’s missing, but before she can say anything there’s a commotion coming from upstairs and Jessica turns and rushes out.  She meets Parker half way on the stairs, who shakes his head at her, “No joy. Didn’t matter how hard Matt hit them they wouldn’t say anything, don’t know if they genuinely don’t know or if Kilgrave’s just covered his tracks really well, like he did with Karen”

Jessica makes her way up the stairs as he talks and he squeezes her arm as they pass. She returns to their bedroom to find Matt sitting on the floor beside the bed, knuckles scraped and bleeding. The previous Father’s Day both the kids had made papier-mâché face masks as a gift and Matt is holding Christopher’s, running his hands over it. Jessica sits beside him and leans her head against his.

~

They convene in the living room with the exception of Malcolm and Dani. Malcolm had taken her upstairs even though Dani protested with every step. Jessica is sitting on the sofa between Matt and Trish.  Foggy is perched on the sofa arm beside Matt, asks the obvious question they’re all dancing around, “What about the mind control? You think he’s going to just let you stroll up to him? Christ what if you barge in and he tells you to hurt _Christopher_? How are _any_ of you going to get anywhere near?”

Jessica can feel Matt tense beside her, “He could never make me hurt Christopher, I’d die first.”

Foggy is right though, Jessica can see only one plan of action but before she can speak Luke chimes in, “Matt, you’ve never been controlled by Kilgrave, I have. The sick fuck would love nothing more than to make you kill your own son because that would destroy you and Jess” He turns to Karen, “Did you want to hand Christopher over? In your right mind what would you do to prevent that?” Karen whispers, “Anything, I’d do anything…Jessica I’m so sorry.” She buries her face in Castle’s shoulder, visibly shaking. Jessica knows Foggy and Luke are right, which is why there’s only one option.

“Kilgrave can’t control me. This was never about who was going to fight him, it was always going to be me.” She looks at the assembled Avengers, Parker, Barnes, Wilson and Banner. “I just need you to help me find them, then I’m going to kill him and this time when I’m done with him there’ll be nothing left to ever come back.”

Banner frowns, “You _were_ immune. Antibodies can wear off and what if he’s told Christopher to hurt himself as soon as a rescue is attempted? Give us a few days, time for the rest of the team to get here from the mission they’re on. Together Tony and I can think of a way to circumvent...”

Jessica jumps up at that, ignores Trish’s attempts to grab her arm, “We don’t have fucking _time_!  He has _my baby_.  He could do _anything_ to him while we piss about” Jessica has tried not to think of that, all the ways Kilgrave could be hurting her son just because he can. She takes a deep breath and turns to Matt, “We find out where he is and you stay here with Dani, I can’t risk him being in range of your senses.” Matt immediately begins to protest but as soon as he starts Foggy’s hand comes down hard on his shoulder, his voice steady, “She’s right, you’re the biggest liability and you’re a hand to hand fighter, you’re useless to her in this.” Jessica nods at Foggy in gratitude, Matt hangs his head in his hands while Foggy keeps his hand on his shoulder. Jessica turns, “Luke, Peter…” Parker nods, “Yeah, we’re liabilities too. Sam and Buck though, you can use them.” Jessica glances at them just as Wilson says, “You know you don’t even have to ask, whatever you need we’re there.” Barnes nods and adds, “Nat’s a crack shot, although really we could use Barton too, don’t suppose you want to wait for him to get here though?” Jessica shakes her head and turns to Castle, Karen has turned to face the room again, red and blotchy. Castle sighs, “Jones, if you ask me if I will join your long range rescue squad I will be so fucking insulted that you have to _ask_ , I will shoot up this goddamn house.” Castle glances at Matt, “I know we’ve not always agreed on a lot of things but I know what it’s like to lose a child and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”

~

Romanoff calls in to report she has a few more leads to try but so far she’s not been able to locate where Kilgrave is holed up. He’d been smart on the video, not to leave any clues to the location. Castle and Karen are the first to leave and the Avengers are not long after, Luke leaves with them, accepting the offer to crash at the tower.  It’s going to be a long couple of days ahead and until they have a location there isn’t much that they can do. Trish asks Jessica if she wants her to stay and Jessica nods while trying not to cry again. Malcolm heads home too eventually but Foggy hesitates and Jessica sighs as she tells him, “You can stay if you want, we’ll make room.”

No one wants to sleep in Christopher’s room in his absence so Trish ends up in with Dani and Foggy takes the sofa. Jessica goes to bed but she doesn’t know how much time passes with her eyes open staring at the wall. Matt is against her back and says at one point, “You should try and get some sleep.” She keeps looking at the wall, “Do you think he’s sleeping? Christ, Matt, he must be so scared, I was never going to let anything happen to him, to either of them.”

Matt sighs and she can feel his breath against his neck, “I know…I wanted…I wanted so much for their lives to be different from mine. For them to feel safe, to be happy, to know they were loved.” Jessica nods, sniffs, “I should have…I should have dismembered the body, burned it, _how_ is he back?”

She can feel Matt shake his head behind her, he doesn’t have an explanation.

At some point Jessica must drift off as she jolts awake to her phone ringing, scrambles at it with Matt right behind her, it’s an unknown number, “Hello?” The voice is crisp and professional, “Ms Jones?” When Jessica confirms who she is the woman continues, “My name is Ava, I’m calling from Metro General. Ms Jones a masked woman carried your son into the hospital twenty minutes ago. He wants his mom.”

~

Matt’s not even bothering with his cane as they rush into the ER. The staff are expecting them and usher them through. Christopher is in a room by himself and when they enter he’s already standing on the bed, having heard them approaching. Jessica double takes at the police officer trying to get him to sit back down as it’s Brett but Christopher ignores him, face bruised and arms held out, “Mommy!”

Jessica grabs him so hard any kid other than one of hers would probably have broken bones, she won’t even surrender him to Matt; he has to hug them both. Eventually Christopher begins to fidget in her grasp and she places him back on the bed, smooths his hair back from his face, “Are you hungry, baby? Have you had something to eat?”

Brett clears his throat at that and waves a juice box he’s been holding, “He’s had some juice, but nothing else, you hungry, buddy? You want me to ask the docs if we can get you some food?” Christopher nods, “Can I have some fries?” Before Brett can leave Matt crosses to him and holds out his hand, “We can’t thank you enough, Brett,” Brett shakes his head while taking the offered hand, “I didn’t do anything, I was dropping someone in the ER when he arrived. All I did was stay, couldn’t leave him without someone he knew until you guys got here.”

Jessica glances over, “Who brought him? The phone call said it was a masked woman?” Romanoff doesn’t wear a mask and would have stayed with Christopher until Jessica and Matt arrived. Christopher replies, “She had lovely soft black hair, it smelled of honey. She told me to close my eyes and there was screaming and then the horrible man was on the floor. She got the chains off me and then we came here, she said she had to go but I was safe now.” Brett nods and jerks his head to the door, “Can we speak outside?” Jessica glances at Matt who nods, he’ll be able to hear anything Brett says.

Outside Brett launches right into it, “I called the precinct, Kilgrave was found and picked up stumbling around outside a luxury apartment block in the West Village. His tongue has been cut out. He’s in another hospital across town under heavy guard and my guess is he’ll be going to the Raft once he’s in a fit enough state to be moved.”

Jessica doesn’t’ feel an ounce of pity, “Good. I hope he fucking suffers.” She hesitates, even though she suspects the answer given Christopher’s description and the injuries to Kilgrave, “”Who rescued my son?”

Brett gives her a hard look, “Officially? We don’t know but it’s clear she meant Christopher absolutely no harm and went out of her way to make sure he was safe before leaving. Unofficially?”

Jessica doesn’t need Brett to elaborate a theory, she knows, “Elektra. It has to have been.” Brett nods.

~

Brett goes off to check with the medical staff it’s okay to give Christopher solid food and then intends to go and get him some. She returns to the room and climbs onto the bed where Matt’s sitting with Christopher curled against him, she curls up with them and Christopher asks, “Where’s Dani?” Jessica runs her hand through his hair again, trying to smooth it down, “Auntie Trish and Uncle Foggy are at home with her, they all can’t wait to see you.”

Matt clears his throat and asks, “Christopher, what happened?” Jessica raises her head and see’s Christopher’s face scrunch up, “Auntie Karen and I went to the park and we were talking about Uncle Frank’s dog, she had puppies and I asked her if she thought Uncle Frank would let me have one.  She said she was sure he would but I’d have to ask for permission to have a puppy first. Then there was this man and I _didn’t_ like him. He told Auntie Karen to leave and to forget about him and she just did. I called after her but I don’t think she could hear? He grabbed my arm and it hurt so I pulled away and he hit me. I screamed for help but he told everyone to ignore us and they _did_. Why did they do that? He pulled me away and I tried to get away from him but he kept hitting me and I couldn’t.”

Jessica interrupts, “Honey, did he tell you directly to do anything, like to behave and not struggle or anything?”

Christopher looks perplexed, “Yeah, he kept trying to boss me about. In the end he put chains on me” Jessica glances down and sees the red welts, feels a surge in her gut of absolute fucking fury, “He gave me water a couple of times a day but nothing else.” Christopher pauses, “He said…he said… _horrible_ things about you, Mommy. But then the lady was there and she helped me.”

Matt asks haltingly, “Did he not try to boss her around too?” Christopher shrugs, “I don’t think he had the chance? She was just there. She was outside and calling my name, I don’t think he heard, she said to close my eyes and that she was going to help me but I had to be very quiet and close my eyes and meditate. Then she was breaking the chains off.”

~

They release Christopher in the afternoon and when they get home Christopher has hardly gotten through the door before a sobbing Dani has thrown herself at him and is in danger of crushing him to death before Jessica prises them apart to let Trish and Foggy get their hugs in. She only then notices Luke hanging back, he offers an explanation, “Came over earlier when the tower got the call to say he’d been found.”

After a late lunch Foggy, Trish and Luke head off and because everyone’s exhausted the four of them end up asleep on Matt and Jessica’s bed. Jessica awakes in the early evening with Dani pressed against her snoring softly. She briefly considers waking the kids up to feed them but decides that they’d wake up if they were hungry and she can feed them then. She closes her eyes again and the next time she wakes it’s because Matt is off the bed and rummaging in the wardrobe where he keeps his kit, she sits up as he stands and she can see he has his billy clubs, “What are you…” He gestures for her to be quiet says softly, “Someone’s in the house. Stay here with the kids.” Jessica gets off the bed, “No, if it’s Kilgrave I’m going to have to fight _you_ , you stay here and concentrate on listening to the neighbours or something.”

There’s not enough light in the room to see his expression but Jessica can guess at it from the tone of his voice, “How the fuck could it be Kilgrave, Jessica?”

She hisses back at him, “How the fuck could he have kidnapped our son when I snapped his neck over a decade ago, Matthew? I don’t know!” Before Matt can reply Christopher sits up groggily, “Oh, she’s here.” Before either of them can respond Christopher is off the bed and through the door while they stand gaping for a moment before bolting after him. Dani is waking up too and Jessica shouts, “Stay there!” at her as she follows Matt out the door. Jessica is right behind Matt when he comes to a halt downstairs. Christopher has scampered up to the person downstairs and Jessica’s main thought is a hysterical _he got to her, Christ she could kill us all, neither of us can take her in a fight she’s too fast_. Matt is obviously thinking the same thing and he is definitely using his Daredevil voice when he says, “Christopher, upstairs, now.”  Christopher turns frowning at them, “Why?” Elektra ignores them and kneels down in front of Christopher, “Are you alright now, Darling?” Christopher nods and Elektra smiles at him, “I think you should go upstairs then like your Daddy asked you to.” Christopher looks unsure as he glances between them and Jessica uses what she likes to think of as her most cajoling voice, “Go upstairs, Baby, please, it’s late and you need to be in bed.”  Christopher shrugs, “Okay.” He turns to Elektra, “Bye then, thank you for saving me.” Elektra smiles at him and there’s a warmth to it that Jessica is surprised by, “You are very welcome, Darling.”

Once upstairs Christopher appears to have gone back into their bedroom rather than his own which is fine with Jessica. Elektra gestures toward the kitchen, “Aren’t you even going to offer me a drink? I thought you Irish were known for your hospitality?” Jessica glares at her, “I’m not Irish, my people are known for their insistence on wanting to know what the fuck you think you’re doing breaking into our home in the middle of the night?”

Elektra shrugs and heads into the kitchen, they follow her and when Jessica tries to push past Matt he blocks her, wanting her to stay behind him. Jessica rolls her eyes she’s pretty sure she’d last about three minutes in a fight with Elektra before she was gutted but Matt would only last two. She gets past when they’re in the kitchen though and heads for the cabinet with the whisky. Elektra sits at the table with a sigh, “You can sit down. Matthew, I’m not here to disembowel your wife and children, you can relax.”  She looks around the room and makes a face, “and to think, all this…domesticity could have been mine.” Jessica puts down three glasses and the bottle as Matt takes a seat. Elektra takes the bottle and a glass. Elektra downs her shot and pours another before sliding the bottle across the table to Matt who catches it with ease, Jessica puts the remaining two glasses in front of him. While Matt pours Jessica says, “I suppose we should say thanks.” She takes a drink, “Seriously though, thank you. Why did you not tell us you’d found him? Hell of a risk you took.” Elektra rolls her eyes, “Kilgrave never saw me coming and I think half a dozen of us would have been a tad conspicuous. Besides, it was my mess to clean. The Hand resurrected him…there’s been…challenges shall we say, to my leadership. They thought they could use Kilgrave against me, obviously they thought wrong. They’ve been dealt with too.” Before Jessica can ask any more Matt tilts his head towards the ceiling and lets out an exasperated noise, “Neither of them have gone back to bed, I’ll go up.” Elektra watches Matt depart with a smirk on her face and Jessica waves her left hand at her, “Hey, you see this shiny thing on my ring finger? He’s got one too that means according to the State of New York and his God that ass you just ogled leaving the room belongs to me, just remember that.”

Elektra just continues to smirk and looks around the kitchen again, “This…it’s what he wanted. A family, a home. I never did.”

Jessica gives her a look, “Because it’s weak?” Elektra grins and lifts her glass, “”No, Darling, because it’s _boring._ ” They both lift their eyes at the commotion coming from the floor above and making its way downstairs. Matt appears again in the doorway with both kids. Matt sighs in defeat, “Dani wanted to meet you too.” Dani is wide eyed as she steps forward, “You’re really her! You’re _Elektra_! I’ve bookmarked your Wikipedia page, you are _awesome_.” Jessica feels obliged to point out, “Uh, she kills people?” Dani gives her a dismissive look, “Yeah, bad people. War lords and human traffickers and _assholes._ ”

Matt interrupts at that, looking put out, “There’s a process, Dani, you can’t just go around…” Dani turns and looks at Matt with such a rare ‘you’re full of shit’ look that Jessica wishes she had a camera, “But it’s okay for you to run around dressed like the Devil punching people in the face?” Matt actually stutters at that, “I don’t…what are you talking about?” Dani rolls her eyes, “Sure you don’t know, you and Mom really need to shut your bedroom door over properly.” She makes a face at that, “For so many reasons.” She turns to a now grinning Elektra, “It was really great to meet you!” turns again and holds her hand out for her brother’s. “C’mon Chris, back to bed.” Before going with Dani Christopher goes up to Elektra and throws his arms around her neck, Elektra looks momentarily shocked but hugs him back. From the look on Elektra’s face as she holds Christopher, one of rare contentment, Jessica isn’t convinced she never wanted a family. Jessica pours herself another drink, she suspects it’s going to be a long night.


	2. Part 2

_Nine Years Later_

Luke pushes open the precinct door and nods to the officer at the desk, “My daughter called me, she’s here with her kid brother?” Before the officer can reply a voice calls, “You’re a sight for sore eyes, Luke. I was braced for Murdock coming through that door.” Luke takes Detective Mahoney’s proffered hand and shakes it, “You’re in luck; he and Jess are out of town on vacation, Dani called me. What the hell is going on?” He still couldn’t quite believe Dani’s panicked, garbled, call asking him to come down to the station as Christopher had been arrested at a party.

Brett runs a hand through his greying hair and sighs, “Uh, a mess. I’ll take you through.” Luke follows Brett and on seeing him Dani jumps out of her seat, “Luke! Oh thank god, they’ve arrested, Chris! Should we call Uncle Foggy? But he’ll call Mom and Dad and…” Luke holds up his hands in a calming gesture. Sitting with Dani is a vaguely familiar woman with a teenager who is also familiar, the woman stands and offers her hand, “Luke? I’m Mai Yu, we’ve met at Matt and Jess’s?” The kid stands and offers his hand with a polite, “Mr Cage, good to see you again, sir.” Luke remembers now he’s Christopher’s best friend Trevor, a nice kid you would not expect to find in a Hell’s Kitchen precinct on a Friday night.  Luke continues to be utterly bemused, “You kids were at party then?” Trevor nods and Luke can guess by the look on his mom’s face that perhaps that’s not where they were meant to be tonight. Trevor clears his throat and Luke suddenly gets a hint of alcohol on his breath. “Yeah, one of the other kids at school hosted it, one of the seniors.” He shoots a look at his mom, “We had a _couple_ of drinks.” Luke asks, “Beers?” Yeah they were underage but teenagers drink. Trevor looks abashed, “Um. Shots.” His mom makes a disapproving noise but Trevor continues, “Me and Chris were talking to our friends Melissa and Ibrahim downstairs when suddenly Chris…you know when he hears things and he…” Trevor does a fairly good impression of a head tilt that Luke has no idea if Christopher does but he’s seen Daredevil do a million times. “Well he did that and suddenly he just _tore_ up the stairs. Kicked down one of the bedroom doors.” Trevor’s face twists in what Luke can only describe as righteous indignation, “There was this guy, Paul Harris, he’s a junior, he was in there with Jenna Freeman and he was…he wouldn’t let her leave and her shirt was torn and she was crying and Chris he just…”

Dani says with a sigh, “He let the devil out.”

Luke blinks, “Oh. He hit this Paul?” To be honest Luke couldn’t say he’d be losing any sleep over that. Brett completes the story, “Christopher broke Harris’ wrist and nose. He was also drunk and belligerent when the officers and paramedics showed up. In Christopher’s defence Ms Freeman confirms that Harris had assaulted her. Harris’ mom is on the city council and his dad is some big cheese in construction”. Dani makes a face at that, “Well that doesn’t sound like they could be corrupt _at all_. Urgh no wonder their kid is a scumbag.”

Luke agrees but he knows better than to say here, he turns to Brett and says firmly, “How do you know he was drunk? Was he breathalysed?” Brett looks annoyed, “Of course” He waves his hand to encompass Trevor, “They all were.”  ‘What would Matt Murdock do’ is running though Luke’s head so he says, “Pretty sure if his parents were here they’d insist on it being done again.” Brett continues to look annoyed and his look is pure, ‘I know what you’re trying to pull here, Cage’.  “Sure, why not.” Mai is giving them a quizzical look as Brett departs to arrange the re-test, Dani explains, “My mom and I metabolize alcohol really quickly; hopefully Christopher does too.” Mai rolls her eyes, “Oh yeah, your superpowers, from your mom, definitely just your mom. Christopher’s uncanny senses are just a quirk of genetics.” Dani gives her an apologetic shrug and Luke asks, “How exactly do you know you metabolize alcohol really quickly?” Dani doesn’t miss a beat, “When we went on vacation to Ireland last year, we went to a distillery, you only need to be eighteen there.  If Chris’s sober now they have less evidence to charge him with, right?”

Trevor is looking indignant again, “He shouldn’t be charged with _anything_! He saved Jenna from that asshole!” Luke nods, “Yeah well I’m pretty sure once his Dad is back in town they won’t be levelling charges at all once he’s done with them and if they won’t let us take him home tonight then we get Foggy down here.”

They all sit back down and Luke smiles as Dani mutters to herself, “Sure, Mom, you and Dad go on vacation, I’m coming back to New York for Spring Break anyway, I can keep an eye on Christopher, it’ll be no trouble.” Dani turns to him, “Actually it’s probably better she’s not here, she’d have ripped the door off his cell by now.” She gestures around, “They’re just holding him to try and embarrass, Dad, even though they’re _terrified_ he’s about to show up but it’s what _mom’s_ going to do they should be worried about.” She raises her voice, “Hope none of them are taking backhanders from that asshole’s family, Auntie Karen will have it on the front of the Bugle if they are!” Before Luke can reply they all jump to their feet as Brett comes back with Christopher in tow. Dani grabs him and pulls him to her. When she lets go Trevor hugs him as does Mai. Only then does Christopher register Luke, “Oh, hey, Luke, how are you?”  Luke gives him a quick hug, “You okay, buddy, they treat you right?”

Christopher sighs, “Yeah, well, you know, comments about my dad but I just asked them if they’d be interested in being interviewed by Auntie Karen.” He mutters under his breath, “Or being introduced to Auntie Ellie.” Luke laughs at that, puts his arm around Christopher’s shoulder, “Yeah, you know what tell Elektra I’ll hold her Hermes purse for her if she wants to have a word with any of these bozos.” He addresses Brett, “Can I take him home now or do I have to get Nelson down here?”

Brett waves at the door, “Leave, please, now.” They say goodbye to the Yu’s outside and Luke hails a cab, gets in after the kids. In the taxi Dani pulls Christopher to her and he lays his head on her shoulder. Luke hesitates when they pull up as he’s not sure whether to ask the driver to take him back to his place or not but Dani turns and frowns when he doesn’t immediately follow them out the cab, “You’re coming in, right?” Luke nods, “Of course, Sweetheart, I’ll just pay the man”. Dani is opening the front door when Luke catches up to them.  Lingers in the hallway as Dani marches her brother into the kitchen, telling him he is going to drink at least 3 glasses of water and go to bed. Christopher mutters, “Test said I was sober” but he does as he’s told.

Luke’s spent countless hours lingering in this hallway, waiting for Danielle, dropping her off. When he first went out of state with Danny he’d sent a postcard every couple of weeks, usually with just a few lines and his email address. He’d wanted Dani to know he was still thinking about her without coming on too heavy. Eventually Dani had emailed him back and while the emails were brief at first they’d become longer as they got to know each other. Then he’d gotten a phone call from her saying her little brother was missing and Luke had gotten there as soon as he could. In the aftermath of Christopher’s kidnapping by Kilgrave Luke had moved back to New York and helped as much as he could.

He couldn’t get back the first eleven years of his daughter’s life but he was grateful every day that he’d been able to build a relationship with her to the point it was taken for granted that Luke would go to her high school graduation and her birthday dinners and all the over milestones. Jessica and Matt had even eventually changed their will so that in the event something happened to them Luke would take custody of Dani. Their only stipulation was that he’d take in Christopher too and Luke hadn’t thought twice about agreeing to it, not wanting the kids split up in those circumstances any more than Jess and Matt did. They’d joked that it at least meant Trish and Foggy wouldn’t end up in court for the custody battle.  He only wished getting to know Dani hadn’t been facilitated by having to step up and help out because Jessica and Matt were having to deal with a traumatized six year old who veered between not wanting to let his parents out of his sight and being furious at them for not keeping him safe from Kilgrave. It had taken a good two years before Christopher was back on an even keel but he was never quite the same as before, quieter and less trusting than the kid Luke had first met.  Dani had luckily just been old enough to understand what was going on and had never resented Christopher for sucking up so much of Jess and Matt’s time and attention,  she’d become more fiercely protective of him than ever.

~

He meets Jessica for lunch midweek which is an infrequent occurrence but regular enough that it’s never awkward. He sips his soda and asks, “Have the charges been dropped?”

Jessica nods as she chews a fry, “We got back Sunday night, Matt had the charges dropped by Monday lunchtime and a full apology. He’s fucking furious of course, Chris is a minor, and they should have called us rather than just saying oh well when the kids told them we were out of town.”

Luke makes an apologetic gesture, “Yeah, I maybe should have insisted Dani call you or did it myself but she was pretty stressed and they let us take him home fairly quickly. Mahoney did what he could. How’s Chris now?”

Jessica shrugs, “On the surface? Fine.  He knows Matt and I aren’t mad he intervened, we’re mad neither he or Dani called us.” She hesitates before continuing, “He…he made a comment about Kilgrave on Sunday night which pretty much makes it clear he knows Kilgrave raped me. I don’t know if it’s something he’s later put together or if…”

Luke finishes the statement, he’s suddenly lost his appetite, “Or if the sick bastard told him.”

Jessica’s mouth is grim, “Yeah. He told us at the time that Kilgrave kept saying horrible shit about me. I just hoped he was too young to understand what it meant but I guess he remembers most of it anyway to piece together. Matt’s worried this is the manifestation of a violent streak that can only be managed by vigilante justice.” Her last sentence is heavy on the sarcasm and Luke can’t stop his mouth quirking up, “Your’re not?”

Jessica picks up another fry and snorts, “No. He stopped a classmate from being raped and he didn’t beat the fucker to a bloody pulp, Matt would have, hell _I_ would have. His reaction was proportionate to the situation although beating him to a pulp would also have been proportionate. Frank sent him a congratulations balloon. Matt didn’t think it was funny.”

Luke tries not to laugh.

~

Luke just gets the odd message saying hi from Dani when she’s back at Harvard, it’s finals season and Luke’s not really expecting much more. He’s surprised when she signs off one email saying they’ll have plenty of time to hang out over the summer, he figures she’d have more exciting stuff to do and says so in his next email. She sends back an eye rolling emoticon.

He knows Dani is back in New York but they’ve not had the chance to see each other yet when Luke gets a phone call on a Saturday morning while out grabbing bagels, he frowns at Matt’s name on the screen. He’s by no means on bad terms with Matt and they were friendly and amicable when in the same room for any reason but they weren’t call each other on a Saturday morning buddies. Never really had been even before.

Unless something was wrong. Luke’s gut drops as he answers the phone, “Hey, Matt, what’s up?”

Matt clears his throat on the other side of the line, “Hi, Luke. Could you come over please? There’s…well we can explain to you in person.” Luke doesn’t hesitate, “I’m on my way.”

~

Luke feels sick as he reads the letter, he can’t _even_ read it, he has to skim. It’s disgusting, explicit stuff about Jessica in amongst general crazy ranting. Luke raises his head to ask Matt, “You get a copy too?”

Matt shakes his head and says dryly, “He’s too cheap to spring for braille apparently. It was just the kids. Dani took off to the gym to punch something. Chris is upstairs, Jess is with him, he’s pretty upset, as you can imagine.” Luke asks, “How the hell did this even get through? Didn’t you take out a restraining order? I thought he wasn’t allowed to try and contact Jessica or either of the kids?”

Matt nods, “He isn’t. I made some calls. You know he has groupies, those fuckwits who campaign for his release, despite the fact he kidnapped and terrorized my six year old son for three days aside from all the other bullshit he pulled over the years. One of them must have smuggled them out for him.”

Matt’s hands are gripping the table top and Luke makes a disgusted noise. In the end the only thing the DA could really nail Kilgrave with was Christopher’s kidnapping, everything else was unprovable. There wasn’t a shortage of defence lawyers wanting to make their name defending him and if they could take a shot at Matt Murdock while doing it all the better. Luke doesn’t understand how anyone could have watched the tapes of a wide eyed, pale, Christopher, haltingly recounting what had happened to him and feel any sympathy at all for Kilgrave. At least the jury had sided with the distraught child and not the psychopath in the nice suit and had unanimously convicted him.

Luke asks, “Dani go to Fogwell’s?” Boxing was something both Luke and Matt could share with Dani and it had been a good outlet for her. Matt nods and Luke follows up with, “You want me to go over there and check on her?” Matt sounds firmer than the expression on his face looks, “No, she needs space, but I thought it would be nice if you were here when she got back, if we were all together.”

Luke briefly leaves after an inspection of their fridge, he and Matt had decided a family lunch was in order but they need some ingredients if they’re going to make the pasta sauce that Jessica, Dani and Chris all unanimously love. When he gets back Dani hasn’t returned but Jessica and Chris are downstairs. Luke says hi to Chris, who is sitting in the living room with Matt listening to NPR and takes the groceries into the kitchen where Jessica is sitting, she shrugs in response to Luke asking how she is, “Well I spent most of this morning rubbing my son’s back while he dry heaved over the toilet so I’ve had better Saturday’s. He’s calmed down a bit but…Christ, Luke, when does it end?”

Before Luke can answer the front door opens and they hear Dani drop her gym bag, when she enters the kitchen she looks taken aback to see Luke, says too quickly, “Is everything okay? Why are you here?”

Jessica scolds her, “At least say hello first, you’re going to make Luke think we made no attempt to socialize you at all.” Dani looks sheepish, “Sorry, hi.” She glances back to the living room, “Chris isn’t…” before she can get any further there’s an annoyed shout of, “I can hear you talking about me you know! I’m not some fragile little…” Chris is cut off and there’s mumbling from the living room between him and Matt. Dani turns on her heel and announces she’s going to shower.

~

Dani pushes herself lightly on the swing while Luke perches tentatively on the one he’s sitting on, not convinced it can hold his weight. They’re on a post lunch walk.  She looks straight ahead as she says bluntly, “I really don’t know why Elektra didn’t just kill him.” Luke’s wondered that too and offers the only explanation he’s ever been able to come up with, “Your dad doesn’t approve of extra judicial killing, you know that.” Dani gives him a look, “Think he’d have made an exception for the sick bastard who’d held his son hostage for the past three days. I just…he was such a happy little kid before that and we all loved him so much…we didn’t love him any less afterwards, but it _hurt_ to see how scared he was. It hurt to see how guilty Mom and Dad felt and the stress it put them under. There were times when I really thought they were going to break up, they had this huge fight a couple of months afterwards you know. Mom woke us up, she’d been drinking, _really_ drinking, not just a couple of glasses like usual and she was leaving and was taking us. I had no idea what was going on, Dad was crying in the kitchen and I didn’t want to leave him but…Mom had Chris and he was terrified and she was leaving and drunk so I went with her.  They’d never fought like that before and it wasn’t the last time either, we stayed with Trish for most of the week before Dad turned up looking like he’d spent the entire time alternating between drinking and getting the shit kicked out of him, probably had now I look back on it. She went with him though and left us with Trish, they came back the next day to take us home.  You know what the worse thing was when they fought? I was so scared one of them was going to take a swing at the other, that I’d need to get in between them to stop it…”  Luke must look horrified as Dani rushes to reassure him, “That never happened…” Luke feels sick, he had no idea it had been that bad. When he and Danny returned it wasn’t just the shock of finding out he had a kid he’d had no idea existed, it was the guilt he’d left her with only _Jessica_. An alcoholic with PTSD. It hadn’t been a relief in the slightest to be told Jessica had been shacked up with Matt Murdock, a masked vigilante with a death wish, for most of his daughter’s life.  Everyone at Avengers Tower had rushed to reassure him that both Jess and Matt had gotten their shit together, were functioning adults these days and his daughter and the son they’d had together were happy, stable, kids. From what Luke had observed before he left New York that seemed to be the case. Dani takes a deep breath, “They eventually got over it but it was all because of _him_. We’re still not free of him because there’s idiots, total _fucking morons_ that think Kilgrave is just misunderstood and enable his bullshit. He’s not misunderstood. He tortured my brother, raped my mom. He’s a fucking monster.”

There’s nothing Luke can say to make it any better.

~

Jessica looks up from her desk with a distracted, “What?” Luke repeats it quietly, “You could have talked to me, about how bad it got between you and Matt, back after Christopher’s kidnapping.” Jessica’s look of confusion hardens into something else and she states, “Dani spoke to you about it” When Luke nods Jessica seems to deflate, “She’s always rolled her eyes and complained about the family flair for melodrama whenever me or Matt try to speak to her about it, to apologise I guess. We know she felt like she was stuck in the middle, trying to protect Chris from it.” Luke says for the third time, “You could have talked…” Jessica cuts him off, “Oh yeah, that would have helped the situation, me running to cry on your shoulder. I’d have come home one day to find he’d taken the kids and was halfway to wherever the fuck Elektra happened to be.”

Luke can’t help raising an eyebrow, “Can’t see Elektra as the stepmom type unless we’re talking about the wicked kind.” Jessica snorts, “It just…I guess aside from the fact that our son had been kidnapped and we spent three days in a state of abject fucking terror for him, it just brought so much shit back to the surface for both of us. Before…we were always broken but our edges fit together. After that it was like bits were falling off us and we didn’t fit together anymore. Took a while to smooth those edges again.”

Luke is curious, “How did you do it, smooth the edges?” Jessica shrugs, “Lots of talking, lots of crying and lots of fucking mainly, you know, the triumvirate of our relationship. He mainly does the crying.”

“I figured.” Jessica smiles at Luke’s words, not quite grim but not quite happy either. She says quietly, “I do love him you know. I know what everyone thinks, that I was alone with a kid and he was a great mark, good looking, good job and most importantly desperately lonely.” Luke interrupts automatically, “I’m sure that no one…” Jessica cuts him off with a roll of her eyes, “I was there, you weren’t. That I was taking advantage of him was pretty much the universal theme, only Trish had the nerve to say it to my face, to ask if I was sure I was over you and that it wasn’t fair to Matt if I wasn’t. I _was_ sure though, maybe not that I was over you in the early days but I was still sure I loved Matt. I was sure he loved me too.” Luke feels a stab of guilt at that, he’s not sure he ever loved Jess like that, not the way he’d loved Reva or Claire.  He thinks he could have, if things had been different, if they’d had more time or met in different circumstances. If Jessica notices a change in his expression she doesn’t comment, “It’s not always been easy, especially after what happened to Christopher. We worked _so hard_ to give him and Dani a stable life. We didn’t want them to be fucked up like us.”

Luke says softly, “They’re great kids.” Jessica sighs and mutters “I miss day drinking.”

~

Luke feels physically nauseous as he watches the news feed. Kilgrave escaped from the secure unit at Rikers that morning and it’s on all the channels, the authorities waited most of the day to announce it. Not wanting to create panic. He tries to concentrate on what Danny is saying down the line, “I can be there by tomorrow morning, Colleen is arranging the transport.” Luke’s mouth is dry but he manages to get out, “No. Stay put.” Danny begins to protest and Luke know his voice is coming out high and panicked, “No, Danny! I can’t…I can’t worry about Jessica, the kids _and_ you. I need you to stay there where I know you’re safe, please, that’s what you can do to help.”

He sighs in relief at Danny’s grunt of assent, Danny’s tone shifts to cajoling, “Okay but how about this then? You all come to Hong Kong, you, Jessica, Matt and the kids.” Luke sighs, “Jess would never…” Danny interrupts, “Yeah, she hates me, I know. You and Matt could persuade her though. It’s a good plan and besides, you say you can’t worry about me but that works both ways. You can’t expect me to sit here and worry about you. He’ll try and use the people Jessica loves to get to her.  It’s you, Matt, the kids, Trish and Malcolm that are in the most danger. Shit I didn’t think of…you better bring Trish and Malcom too.”

Luke sighs, he hates it when Danny’s right, about anything. He nods, even though Danny can’t see him, “You’re right. Let me speak to them, I’ll call you back.” Luke’s phone buzzes as she soon as he ends his call with Danny, he’s not surprised it’s Matt. What does surprise him is the panic in his voice, the man without fear doesn’t freak out, “Luke, we can’t find the kids.”

Luke’s pretty sure his heart stops.

~

Luke doesn’t know how he’s still standing, Jessica makes a noise that Luke thought only animals could make as her knees buckle and she slides to the floor, on the screen is Kilgrave’s grinning face, a flash of metal where a flesh tongue used to be as he says in that fucking smug voice of his, “Welcome to Jessica’s choice!” Behind him Dani and Chris are in glass cells. Chris is curled up on himself in a corner. Dani is punching at the glass and Luke has no idea what it must be made of as it’s holding out as she punches and kicks, they can hear her screaming, “I’m going to kill you! You hear me you sick fuck! You touch my brother and I’ll make it fucking slow!” Kilgrave waves at her and then turns back to the camera, “So feisty, just like her mother! I must confess Jessica I do so hope you pick her. I mean she’s _Luke’s_ daughter! The love of your life!” He gestures back at Chris, “But then there’s Matthew’s son and do you really think your relationship, the one that you’ve both clung to as your life line from the miserable, lonely lives, you led before could survive _that_? You have 24 hours to decide which one of them you want to save, I can’t _wait_ to find out which one you chose!”

With that the recording cuts off. Matt has backed up against the wall and is making a choking noise. Jessica is howling, it’s the only word for it “My children, Christ, he has my children.” Luke takes a deep breath, he can’t afford to fall apart, he goes to lift Jessica up but she struggles and he finds himself pleading, “Jessica, come on, we need to…we need to regroup, get up.” Jessica just shakes her head but Matt seems to have pulled himself together enough to come over, he sits behind Jessica and wraps his arms around her, says shakily, “It’s going to be okay. We’ll find them and then I swear to god I am going to disembowel him and burn the fucking body myself. This is the last time, I promise, he’s never getting the chance to hurt you or our children again.”  Luke crouches down and takes one of Jessica’s hands, “Matt’s right, this ends.”

~

Rogers is implacable, he looks straight at Luke and says, “We’ll handle this. You can’t be objective and you’re a liability to both those kids right now, and us.” Luke frowns, “What are you saying? That I’d fuck up the mission if I saw a chance to save Dani? Even at Chris’s expense?” Rogers answers “that’s not what I meant” at the same time as Stark’s says “Exactly big guy.” Rogers sighs and looks exasperated, gives Stark a look, “I meant…” Luke cuts him off, “You think I’d sacrifice one for the other? You think Dani would ever forgive me? Besides you’re really going to lecture me on not allowing personal ties to interfere with a mission?” He turns to Stark, “Remind me again how long you were in the infirmary after you took that blast for Pete?”

Stark looks indignant, “He’s my protégé, I didn’t want all that work to go to waste.” Rogers sighs and glances at Stark who shrugs, “Your call fearless leader.” Rogers glares at him, “Fine, but you follow orders or I’ll have Wanda teleport you into a wall and I’m letting you come as you’re an Avenger but Murdock and Jones stay here. I’m not even entering into a conversation about that” Luke nods, he knows neither of them will be happy about that but he knows it’s pushing it too far to argue for their inclusion.

He’s right as Jessica hisses at him, “Like _fuck_ will I stay here! They’re _my_ kids, you think I’m relying on that bunch of fucking frat boys to save them?” Luke holds his hands up, trying to placate her, “I understand how you feel but…”

Jessica throws her own hands in the air at that, “Christ I’m _sick to death_ of people telling me how I feel! You _don’t_ know how I feel! Kilgrave _controlled_ me, _raped me,_ made me _a murderer_. I killed him and he still came back. He…he took my son and he _broke_ him. My beautiful, happy, little boy. Now he has _both_ of them, both my babies and he wants me to _choose_ and it’s not even about them, not really.” She gestures to take in Matt who is standing looking like he might vomit, Luke definitely knows how he feels, “It’s about the _two of you_ and the fact he’s a misogynistic psychopath. So don’t tell me how I feel, you have no fucking idea how I feel, either of you!” She turns at that and exits the room, Luke stares at Matt, wanting to know what he should do and after a moment’s hesitation Matt says, “Go, we’re wasting time with this. I’ll try and convince her to stay here but I’m not going to physically stop her if she wants to go after Kilgrave, couldn’t’ even if I wanted to. She’s more equipped to deal with him than anyone and she’s got more right to it too.”

Luke nods, heads towards the door, “Let’s hope we get them back before it comes to that.”

~

Banner fits them all with earplugs that he and Stark have been working on, it’ll allow them to hear calibrated noises, like orders from Rogers but will prevent Kilgrave’s voice being heard. Locating Kilgrave is actually fairly easy when you have resources like the Sorcerer Supreme to call on. He’s on another plane so it takes the convoluted channel of contacting Thor who contacts Loki who would usually tell them go fuck themselves but there’s kids involved and  thinking kidnapping and terrorizing kids is beyond the pale is Loki’s one redeeming feature so he contacts Strange in the astral plane and they have a location within 45 minutes.

~

Everything happens so quickly that later Luke has a hard time piecing it all together. As they rush the room there’s an almighty crack and Kilgrave is staring slack jawed as the glass on Dani’s cage shatters, finally giving out under the constant hail of punches and kicks. They can’t hear what Kilgrave shouts at her but she later tells Luke that KIlgrave was trying to order her to stop. She ignores him, the antibodies she inherited from Jessica kicking in and before anyone can stop her, or even realise what she’s going to do, Danielle advances on Kilgrave, grips the back of his head with one hand and his chin with the other, and rips his head clean from his neck.

Dani only glances at the slack jawed Avengers before turning and running over to Chris, begins to punch the glass. Wanda gets over her shock first and rushes over as Luke is taking his ear plugs out, he hears Wanda say as she tentatively puts a hand on Dani’s shoulder, “Let me, if you shatter the glass you might hurt him.” Chris had stayed in his corner but is standing looking equally shocked at what’s he’s just seen. Wanda breaks the glass telekinetically and holds the shards together to stop them going everywhere just as Luke reaches Dani. All he gets is a brief glance and smile of relief before the glass is down and Dani is in Christopher’s cell, hugging him. Christopher buries his face in her shoulder and Luke can see he’s shaking, can’t help think, _Christ,_ _he’s not even sixteen yet_. Dani leads him out and Luke helps them both climb out the cell, takes his hoodie off and drapes it over Christopher, says to them both, “You’re mom and dad are at Avengers tower, they wanted to come but…” He throws a glance at Rogers but Rogers just glares unrepentantly, “Danielle, Christopher, we’ll take you to the tower to your parents and get you checked out.” Luke puts an arm around them both as they make their way out, he doesn’t expect Christopher to stop at Kilgrave’s body, staring wide eyed at Kilgrave’s severed head. Dani says tentatively as he stares, “Chris? C’mon, he can’t hurt you now, he’ll never hurt us again.” Christopher’s reply is a soft “I know” and then suddenly he brings his foot up and smashes it down on Kilgrave’s head, he does it again and again and shouts, “You won’t hurt my mom again, you won’t _touch_ her!”  Dani turns her head away and Luke holds her tight as she cries against him. He can’t stop Christopher without letting Dani go and while he’s wavering between what to do Rogers comes up and grabs hold of Christopher. His voice is gentle rather than admonishing, “It’s okay, son, it’s okay. C’mon, let’s get you home.”

Luke leads his daughter out of the warehouse while Captain America keeps an arm firmly around her brother’s shoulders.

~

There’s a couple of family suites at the tower and Luke finds himself sitting on a sofa with Dani, who’s dressed in a huge fluffy bathrobe and PJ’s. They’re both drinking beer. Matt is on another sofa with his own beer and Christopher’s head in his lap, who’s soundly asleep in a pair of Thor PJ’s. Jessica is speaking to the family liaison officer the police have sent round downstairs.  All three awake heads swivel to the door when it opens and Jessica returns. She gets her own beer from the fridge and goes to sit on the sofa with Matt and Christopher, pausing to kiss Dani on the forehead before she does. She lifts Christopher’s legs and puts them across her lap as she says, “They want to interview both the kids, I told them to call Nelson and Murdock in the morning and it’d be arranged via the family lawyers.”

Matt replies with a fond smile, “That’s my girl.” Dani looks nervous, “Will they…I didn’t kill him in self-defence…” Matt’s smile is gone and his tone is insistent. “Yes. You did. A team of meta-humans were on the scene who he could have potentially gotten control of. You feared for your and your brother’s life. You speak to no one outside this room without me or your Uncle Foggy present, not even the Avengers, understood?”  Dani nods and for clarity’s sake adds, “Yes, Dad,” Luke picks up her hand and squeezes it, “It’s going be okay, honey. You want to tell us what happened?”

Dani takes a deep breathe, “We got out of the movies, our phones were off and I guess we just forgot to put them back on. We had no idea he was loose and that you were all trying to find us. We were maybe a couple of blocks from home when suddenly we were grabbed from behind, they put something over my mouth and nose and when I woke up we were in those glass cells and Kilgrave…he was there and talking his usual crazy shit.” She glances at Jessica and looks away, “About how mom was a slut…you know his usual misogynistic bullshit. He said…he was really vile about Christopher too, about how he could make millions handing over Daredevil’s son for the gangs to do what they like with, I don’t even know how he knew about Dad…that’s when…I just saw _red_. It wasn’t just that he was going to make Mom _chose_ which one of us to kill, like he’d have let either of us go anyway. He was going to hand Chris to the crime families to be gang raped before they slit his throat and left him on the doorstep for Dad to find. I just…I had to kill him, I knew then that there was only one way this could end and it was with his head detached from his fucking shoulders. I’m not sorry I did it, Chris doesn’t have to worry about Kilgrave again and neither do you, Mom.” Dani’s face crumples at that and Jessica, in tears herself gets up and crosses to hold her.

~

Foggy meets them down at the precinct the next morning with Trish in tow. Foggy it turns out  spent most of the previous evening yelling at a whole host of federal and state agencies not only about how Kilgrave managed to escape, it was clearly well planned, but why, as soon as he did, were Jessica and Matt not told immediately and offered protective custody for Jessica and the kids. Answers have not been forthcoming but threats of lawsuits from Foggy have. Jessica makes a face, “Lawsuits? Really, is that not a bit much, Foggy, we just want this to finally be over.”

It’s Matt who answers, “Exactly, they’ll want it to be over too, the more noise we threaten to create the less they’ll want to drag this out.” Dani glances around, “You mean so they won’t charge me?”

Luke squeezes the hand he’s been holding as Matt nods, “Exactly, Honey. Chris is a minor so Mom can be with him during the interview, Foggy will go with them. I’ll come with you while you’re interviewed as your lawyer rather than your parent. Is that okay?” Dani nods, “Yes. Let’s get this over with.” She slips her hand out of Luke’s and nudges Matt with her elbow, which he takes. Jessica follows them with her arm securely around Chris. Foggy is walking on Matt’s other side and from the murmuring between them Luke guesses they’re conferring. He takes the rear with Trish.

Luke and Trish sit drinking bad coffee for most of the morning during the interviews.  He’ll need to give a statement himself at some point but that’ll be via the Avengers. Unsurprisingly they let Chris go first and Trish jumps up and rushes over to him and Jessica as soon as they appear, Foggy just behind them. “How did it go?” Jessica sighs as Chris shrugs, she gives Chris a sideways glance, “Well we had to tell them about the stomping…” Foggy interrupts, “Kilgrave was dead at that point and Chris was under a huge amount of emotional stress, talk of charging him with desecration of a corpse were dropped when I pointed out it was an election year and did they really think the DA wanted to be on the front page of the Bugle for charging a minor for reacting like that when confronted with their abuser.” Jessica visibly winces at the phrasing but Chris just turns to her, “I’m hungry, Mom. I’m going to go across the street to the diner.” Jessica hesitates for a second but asks, “Do you want me to…” Chris cuts her off, “Mom, it’s fine, it’s across the street. I’ll be half an hour max.” Jessica sighs her agreement and Chris leaves. Jessica slides into the nearest chair as Trish says, “He seems to be…coping.”

Jessica huffs, “Yeah, just like he seemed to be coping last time until he trashed half the house in an epic temper tantrum and I had to physically restrain him because he’d already knocked Matt out when he tried.” Luke grimaces at the memory, he hadn’t been there but he’d gotten a call from a clearly distraught Matt asking if he could drop Dani off for the night with Luke as they had to take Chris to the hospital. Dani had still been crying in shock at the scale of Chris’s meltdown when Matt, with one hell of a split lip, dropped her off. Trish sits beside Jessica and puts her hand on her arm, “It’ll be okay, he’s older now and he understands more, you just need to make sure he keeps talking and doesn’t try to bottle it all up like he did the first time.”

Jessica shakes her head, “I just don’t know if…” She interrupted when the door leading to the interview rooms opens and Dani comes through, she makes a beeline for Jessica while Matt shakes the hand of the detective they’d been speaking to before joining them. Jessica frowns as she watches the detective walk away, says as Matt reaches them, “Didn’t you used to date that cop?” Dani sniffs from where she’s practically in her mom’s lap, “She was nice.” Matt answers Jessica dryly, “You know all previous romantic entanglements faded from my mind the moment you gave me the time of day, my love.” Jessica snorts and Matt continues, “They aren’t charging Dani, they accept that she legitimately acted in self-defence due to the threat the Avengers posed if Kilgrave was able to get control of them.” Jessica sighs in relief and pulls Dani even closer to her as Luke puts his hand on Dani’s shoulder.

~

It’s six months afterwards when Chris turns up at his door one night, face blotchy, and offering an explanation, “Sorry…I didn’t know where else to go, Trevor’s grandma is sick and he puts up with so much drama from me already…my mom…my mom kicked me out…” Luke stares for a moment before the ‘responsible adult’ instinct kicks in and he ushers the distraught kid on his doorstep inside. He sits Chris, sniffling audibly now down and goes to get him a glass of water, which is mainly an excuse. He pulls out his phone and quickly texts Jessica, _He’s here. Don’t worry._ He calls out, “Hey, you want some hot chocolate?” Chris calls back unenthusiastically, “I guess…, thanks, Luke, yeah, that’d be great.” His phone pings and it’s Jess, _Oh thank fuck, I’ll come over_. Luke grimaces at that, he really doesn’t want his apartment deposit to be in the middle of a Murdock-Jones family meltdown. Not with the amount of super strength and karate potentially involved. _Maybe give him some space? I’ll bring him back in the morning, he can crash with me and everyone can calm down_

Luke’s adding the whipped cream to the hot chocolate when his phone pings again _Okay. Matt agrees with you. Urgh I hate it when you guys team up against me. Tell him we love him_.

Luke fires off a quick reply and takes the mugs through, puts them down on the table. Chris is looking at him accusingly, “You were texting with her, weren’t you.” Luke sighs, “Yeah. Don’t call your mom ‘her’, it’s not nice. Your mom wanted me to tell you that she and your dad love you.”

Chris shrugs and it’s such a classic Jessica mannerism Luke can’t help but smile. Chris lifts his mug and looks up, frowning, “It’s weird to think about, isn’t it? If you hadn’t disappeared…they probably wouldn’t have gotten together would they? My mom and dad.”

Luke makes a non-committal noise at that. He’s not so sure. Jessica and Matt were weirdly close from the offset and Jessica had taken his ‘death’ at Midland Circle hard. There’d been a betting pool at one point that they’d get together, if they weren’t already as it was hard to tell with the two of them sometimes. The “Defenders” had once been staking out somewhere and Jessica had gone to sleep with her head in Matt’s lap while Danny and he exchanged looks. Matt had said, annoyed at hearing the raised eyebrows or however he could tell, “We’re just friends.” Luke’s not jealous by nature so even when he and Jessica were, briefly, back together the steady stream of _I was with Matt, I’m just going to check on Matt, Matt and I were_ …never bothered him. Jessica was a lot of things but she wasn’t a cheater and Luke figured if she’d wanted to be with Matt romantically she’d had plenty of chances to be. He had noted when he got back with Jess and they were all together Matt often looked unhappy and Luke had suspected Matt was jealous but it could easily have been because Jessica was one of the few friends he had and she was spending less time with him. Danny hadn’t been thrilled either and dropped heavy hints about how much he and Colleen missed double dating with him and Claire. A double date with Danny and Colleen was Jessica’s idea of what they’d make her do on day 3 in Hell. Luke remembers when she said it Matt had been there and she’d followed it up by turning to Matt to say, “No offence to Colleen, when you get round to dating her I’m on board for the double date.” It had to have been one of the few occasions Matt laughed around Luke during that period. Ultimately finding out Jessica and Matt were married had been much less of a shock than finding out Dani existed.

Luke clears his throat, “So you had a fight with your mom?” He can’t imagine what would make Jessica throw him out, again when listing her faults being an indifferent mother would never be one of them. She loved the bones off both her kids.  Chris nods and his eyes shine, “Yeah…I…” He takes a deep breath, “I told them I wanted a DNA test, I just…I want to be sure.”

Luke feels like he’s been kicked in the balls himself hearing that so he can’t imagine how _Matt_ _and Jessica_ must have felt. In the aftermath of Kilgrave’s, hopefully fucking final, death, one of his fuckwit groupies had given an interview saying Kilgrave had told her that Christopher was really his son and that’s why he’d taken him, that it was all a misunderstanding and he just wanted the chance to know the child Jessica was keeping from him. They assumed it was some sort of final chance to fuck with Jessica failsafe Kigrave had put in place. Chris continues, “Mom…she just….she _screamed_ at me. You know it’s not like she’s never yelled at me, to tidy up or to behave or whatever but…”

Christopher trails off and looks at Luke with his big doe eyes, _Matt Murdock’s_ eyes, just one of the reasons why the whole proposition is ridiculous. Luke keeps his voice soft, “Chris, buddy, you know that there is no way it’s true, don’t you? Beyond the fact Kilgrave had been dead for years when you were born, there’s your senses, the fact you look like your dad…” Luke is going to continue but Chris’s mouth twists, “I have hazel eyes, lots of people do, that’s not proof of paternity and they’ve spent years telling _everyone_ that my senses are just a weird twist on the genes I inherited from my mom. What if…what if that’s not the lie? We’ve no way of knowing how long he’d been back, what if the Hand resurrected him earlier than we think? When they were active in New York? That would make more sense, right?”

Luke shakes his head, “Chris, I am absolutely certain that Kilgrave wouldn’t have laid low for five plus years if he’d been resurrected earlier. Also, and I am being brutally honest here, your mom…she wouldn’t have kept you, if you were his.”

Luke regrets it as soon as he says it as Chris is looking at him _stricken_ and wide eyed, he says so quietly it’s almost a whisper, “Maybe she didn’t have a choice, maybe he made her. The only person we have proof of that his powers don’t work on after he came back is me.” Luke opens his mouth to point out Dani but Chris beats him, “He barely had the chance to order Dani to do anything before she’d removed his head and she was _so angry_ I doubt she heard anything over her own pulse. What if…what if he raped my mom _again_ , made her keep it, _me,_ made her think it was my dad’s…maybe his plan was to reveal all this.”

There is a tiny part of Luke that finds that semi convincing and he now understands why Chris, a deeply traumatized kid looking for a reason why this shit keeps happening to him, has latched onto it, but still, “Chris, I’ve been controlled by Kilgrave, and trust me, anger is not an antidote to his powers. If Dani wasn’t immune like you _and_ your mom he would have stopped her. The odds of you having super senses and _not_ being Matt’s son also seem really, really slim, I am happy to ask Bruce to do the math for you if that would make you feel better. There is no way Kilgrave would have laid low for as long as he would have needed to have pulled this off.”

Chris looks down as he asks, “Why…why was he obsessed with me then? Why not Dani?”

Luke rubs his face with his hand, “Because he’s a racist shit beside a misogynistic one? Dani was also a lot older than you and stronger and maybe he did take into account you both possibly inherited Jessica’s immunity. No offence, buddy but even at 11 if he couldn’t mentally control Dani she was handing his ass to him.”

For the first time since he arrived Chris offers a brief smile, “Yeah, she would have.” He takes a deep breath, “I know…my mom when she was yelling at me, she was saying that I didn’t know how lucky I was, to have a family, that she and my dad knew what it was like not to have one and that I was an ungrateful shit.” Luke sighs and Chris shrugs, tries again, “I know that it’s hurt my dad especially, that it makes him feel that he’s failed in some way but it’s not…I don’t doubt he _loves_ me, it’s not about that. I just….I need to know, Luke, I need to be sure, no matter how irrational it is.”

Luke sighs, “I’ll come with you tomorrow, help you explain this to them.”

~

Dani is glaring as she chops the parsley, they’re waiting for Jess, Matt and Chris to get back from the doctor where they’re getting the DNA results. “It’s just _ridiculous_. Kilgrave is dead and he’s still fucking with us!”

Luke makes a neutral noise. He’d taken Chris’ side that it was better to _know_ if for no other reason than Chris’ peace of mind and Matt had quickly concurred which had just made Luke feel like an asshole. It was clear that Matt was taking this badly and was afraid his son was slipping away from him, as if Chris was looking for proof that Matt wasn’t his father instead of the opposite, he wanted reassurance that Matt was. When she’d been tearing strips off Luke for interfering Jessica had hissed at him, “Nearly _everyone_ Matt has loved his entire _life_ abandoned him or rejected him in some way. Now Chris has pulled this shit, his _son._ Have you any idea how that makes him feel?” Luke had been smart enough not to point out he knew exactly how Matt felt, to feel rejected by your own child and it being unfathomable why.  It’s exactly how he’d felt when he first returned and Dani refused to see him.

Dani had agreed with her mom and thought getting the test was ludicrous and just letting Kilgrave continue to control their lives.

He’s saved from having to actually reply to Dani by the front door opening and both he and Dani freeze. Jessica comes through the door first and head straight to the wine rack, “So we have a piece of paper saying that based on DNA evidence Matthew Michael Murdock is 98.7% confirmed to be the biological father of Christopher Jonathan Murdock.”

Dani blinks, “Why isn’t it 100%?” Matt answers from the doorway, “Just in case I have a twin.” Jessica rolls her eyes as she pours herself a large glass, “Oh god, you probably do, that’ll be the next thing. I’m drinking this bottle, I need to be prepared for the next shit storm.”

Chris is hesitating in the doorway behind his scientifically verified father, Jessica stops in front of him, “You realise you have used up all your brownie point with this shit, right? You better graduate valedictorian, enter a profession that keeps me and your dad in 100 buck bottles of whisky and shack up with someone I approve of.” With that she kisses his forehead and moves towards the living room with her glass and bottle, calling behind her, “Danielle! Come and drink with your mother, leave the menfolk to the cooking.” Dani doesn’t need to be asked twice, she grabs her own glass and practically skips out of the room.

~

Luke dozes off after dinner and wakes with a jolt at the movie end credits. The kids are both on the sofa looking over at him in amusement, Matt and Jessica have disappeared from the living room. Chris yawns and then makes a face when Luke asks where they are, “They’re in the kitchen cleaning up, there’s not a lot of cleaning going on, I’m trying to block it out.”

Luke clears his throat, “Should I risk going in there to say goodnight or is it better for my supply of brain bleach that I don’t?” Dani snorts as Chris shrugs dismissively “Oh they’re just making out, but still, it’s gross.”

Luke hauls himself up from the chair and gives both kids a quick hug as he says good night. From the kitchen doorway he sees Matt and Jess by the sink and the only word Luke can think of to describe what they’re actually doing is canoodling. They’re entwined around each and Jessica is whispering something in Matt’s ear that’s causing him to smirk. Luke, not for the first time on seeing them together the last few years, feels envious. For the life he might have had, not that he really begrudges them for the happiness they found with each other. Matt notices him first of course but they don’t exactly rush to detangle, why should they? Luke tilts his head towards the front door, “I’m going to head home, just wanted to say good night.” Jessica steps away from Matt, “I’ll see you out.” Luke calls back a good night to Matt and heads to the front door with Jessica just behind him. When they reach the front door Jessica says, “Thanks, Luke. For staying with Dani this afternoon and you know, not heading to Hong Kong as fast as Danny’s jet can carry you at yet another Jones-Murdock family drama.”

Luke smiles, “Kind of like to think of them as Jones-Murdock-Cage family dramas these days.”

Jess returns the smile and nods, “You want to come over for Sunday dinner? Before Dani heads back to school?”

“I’d love that, see you Sunday, Jess.” Luke pulls up his hoodie to the cold night air and grins as Jessica calls after him before she closes over the front door, “Bring a decent wine!”

 


End file.
